What is your FATE?
by No One's Fool
Summary: This is similar to Fable, but based of the game FATE instead. There is no FATE category, so it's here instead. What happens when seventeen year old twins get sucked into a game called FATE? And who are the mysterious strangers they find there?
1. A birthday surprise

What is your FATE?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dell or FATE or Yazh'rod the Emperor Abomination, just the characters I made up.**

"Dantenar, we're going to be late!" Zarathel glared at me. She'd always hated that name, and I didn't blame her. I mean, Zarathel? It's worse than Dantenar. Our hippie wannabe parents had died a long time ago, when we were six, and we'd been stuck in a foster home. "Dantenar, it's our seventeenth birthday today. Do you really want to miss it?"

"Sorry, Zara." I really was sorry. "I have to find Fiddlestix." Honestly, that dog was always getting into trouble. I should've named her Trouble instead. "If you help me, it'll go faster..." I tried my puppy dog eyes on her. Zara relented. Finally, after ten minutes of searching, Fiddlestix jumped onto my back, her little tail wagging so hard her whole body shook.

"Finally. Now let's go, we're already late to our own party." We practically ran to the home. But when we walked in, there was no one there. I turned on the light, and nearly jumped out of my skin as everyone popped out of hiding places and yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" at the exact same time. Zara fell over, but then started laughing. Her dog, who was named Trouble, which was why I hadn't named my dog Trouble, jumped on her, licking her face with his tongue. Trouble and Fiddlestix were from the same litter, their breed Jack Russel Terrier.

"Dantenar, Zarathel, you two have been such good friends to the other children in the home for so long, I thought we'd throw you a surprise birthday party!" The headmistress, Amy Sharitin, said. The other kids, who were all younger than us, gave out hugs. "I think you'll like your gifts. They were donated by people who care about orphans like you and the others. But please, be kind and share with the kiddies," Ms. Sharitin said, giving the fourteen children fond looks.

Zara walked into our room, but I had to get something to drink first. I was heading towards the kitchen to get one when I heard her scream. I ran upstairs as fast as I could.

Zarathel was pointing at two nice laptops that hadn't been there earlier. This was our room, I should know. "Wow, Zara, where'd those come from?" I traced the Dell sign on the back of the laptop closest to me. "They're really nice."

Zarathel picked up a computer game in a red box near her computer. "FATE? What game is that?"

Ms. Sharitin walked in. "These are your gifts. Dell donated them because...well, I don't know exactly why. But they were donated nonetheless. Do you like them?" Her voice was anxious. Ms. Sharitin was like the mom we'd never known, as our mother had died having us. Dad, who had always been sort of a hippie, had named us and taken care of us until he'd died in a car accident. "And I agree with Zara, I've never heard of FATE either. That wasn't there earlier, I assure you."

I had heard of the game in question. "It's like Fable, but E10 instead of M. We must have gotten it for our birthdays, I guess." I picked up the one by laptop. "Well, I'm going to try it out." I opened my laptop and logged onto my account, which was somehow already on. "Welcome, Dantenar," a light musical voice said. I jumped back. "Zarathel, my computer just talked to me."

Zara was already logged on. "Yes, I know, don't worry. That's what this type of computer does, I guess. I wonder where they came from, anyway?"

I put the disc into the disc drive and clicked install. A few minutes later, I was looking at the welcome screen, listening to the music coming out of speakers I hadn't even noticed or turned on. "This is getting bizarre."

Zara looked up from her position on the floor. "Tell me about it. Look at this," she said, beckoning me over. I knelt next to her. A message was going up the screen. "I haven't started the game yet, this just popped up when I put the disc in," Zara whispered.

_You are about to embark on a mystical journey, filled with danger and excitement. Do you dare to tempt Fate and fulfill your destiny?_

I looked at Zara, who was looking at me. I raised my eyebrow, but sat down to watch the message on mine. It was just getting past that part.

_Tales tell of a great __**Emperor Abomination**__ whose name is spoken in whispers – __**Yazh'rod**__…For centuries it has waited on the __**53**__**rd**__** level**__ of the Dungeon, its evil seeping up toward the town…You must destroy it, once and for all, and rid the world of its evil influence. It is your Fate, adventurer! Will you meet it?_

"Weird." I pushed the 'start' button on the menu that popped up. I named my character Dantenar, who was a girl wearing leather shorts, and chose her features and hair. Then I chose a dog, which looked like a Jack Russel Terrier, and named her Fiddlestix. A weird message starting rolling up the screen, and a creepy guy's voice started reading it. I pressed continue as fast as I could. Another message read,

**Destiny awaits you on level fifty-three, where Yazh'rod the Emperor Abomination lurks. Save the Town of Grove from this evil scourge and you will find your FATE.**

I clicked continue again. There was a weird rushing sensation, and then I was standing on a path near a fountain. There was odd music playing, and I had an axe in one hand. A dog was standing next to me. "Zara?" I yelled. She didn't answer. "Okay, what kind of freaky trip am I on?" I whispered to myself. The I looked down. I was wearing the exact same clothes as my character. I polished the head of my axe on my leather shorts and looked at my face. My features were the same, too! This was really starting to creep me out.

"Ah!" A fat, bald guy said. "You must be Dantenar the Unknown. I'm Bartleby. Welcome to the Town of Grove!"


	2. An adventure begins

Disclaimer: I don't own FATE, or Woman's Day, only Zarathel, Dantenar and Fiddlestix. I borrowed Trouble from Patricia C. Wrede.

Author's Note: Dantenar is pronounced "don-ta-nar," and Zarathel is pronounced how it looks.

Chapter Two

_Zarathel's POV_

I looked around anxiously for my sister, but all I saw was green grass, trees and a gate behind me. I started. I was standing next to a small town fountain, with four paths running in four directions. "How did I get here?" Trouble was at my side. I bent down to pet him, and noticed that I was wearing leather shorts and short leather boots. I also had an axe in my hand. "This is weird."

Trouble looked at me. _Tell me about it_, he said. _Did you have to get started so suddenly? And where's Fiddlestix?_ His gaze was reproachful. I stared at him.

"You just talked. My dog just talked to me. That's it, I'm insane! That explains everything. The grass, the trees, the creepy gate, the old guy with the staff and wizards outfit..." My voice trailed off as I laid my eyes on the little town in front of me. "Wow. This looks just like the Town of Grove!"

A fat guy, standing by a storefront not four feet away, laughed. "That's because this is the Town of Grove. You must be Zarathel the Unknown. I'm Bartleby. Welcome to the Town of Grove! You're always welcome here, hahaha..." his voice slowly stopped, and he had a hopeful look on his face. "Would you like to buy some potions or gear?"

I backed up slowly. "I'm in a loony bin." Suddenly, I ran into an older lady.

"Welcome, traveler. I am Jin the Seer. My wares are both ancient and mystical." I looked at her, feeling panic write itself on my face.

"DANTENAR!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I ran towards the creepy gate, desperate to find my sister. "This can't be happening."

_Dantenar's POV_

After bumping into a walking mushroom, I decided that I'd make a run for the creepy, rickety old gate that I had seen. I got to the gate and went inside, closing the gate behind me. Creepy music started playing from somewhere, severely freaking me out, and I almost fell over an urn in front of me. The words "cracked urn" were floating above it.

"This is so incredibly odd." the sound of my own voice made me jump. I broke the urn with my axe, and a little pile of gold appeared. "3 gold" was floating above it. I touched it, and it dissolved into glitters. A little dial on my right sleeve went from 250 to 253. "Okay, so that's my gold meter. Gotcha." I kept walking, Fiddlestix by my side.

After breaking another urn and a crate, both with what they were floating above them, I was starting to get used to this. Finally, I saw a wooden contraption with the words "weapon's rack" floating above them. I touched it, and a poleaxe, again with floating words identifying it, and a spiked club appeared on the floor. I picked up the poleaxe, deciding I liked how it felt, and my axe disappeared.

"Oh, I get it! The poleaxe must be a two handed weapon, while the axe is a one handed weapon. I can do this." I put the spiked club in my inventory, how I don't know, and continued on my way.

I came to a large chest. I knew it was a large chest because, again, the floating words said so. It was bathed in a weird purple glow, and I was almost afraid to open it. But I did, touching the floating words to do so. It opened and a vest plopped onto the floor. I touched the words above it and it immediately appeared on me. "Hmm." I turned around and saw a big, green blob coming towards me. The words "emerald gel" were above it, and I poked at it with my poleaxe. After two pokes, it disappeared.

A sewer rat came at me, followed by its other rat friends, and I decided to turn tail and run. They backed me into a corner, and I started blindly slashing. One died, but I saw a long red bar on my chest going down, slowly. I quickly finished off the rats and ran. When I got a stitch in my side, I bent over and breathed hard. "You are exhausted," the same creepy voice that had spoken before I got stuck in the FATE game said. I glared up at the ceiling. "You think I don't know that?"

I turned and saw three "ruby gel"s coming after me. I slowly backed up and ran into someone who was backing up from the other direction. We both whirled around. "Zarathel!" I shouted. She was carrying pitchfork in both hands, and looked grimy and exhausted.

_Zarathel's POV_

Dantenar looked tired and confused, but turned and killed the ruby gels coming towards her. Then she faced me again. "Zarathel, I don't understand. What kind of game is this? Why are we stuck here?"

I had figured it out by now, after killing at least five sewer rats, a couple ruby gels and a Death Cap. "I think we have to get to level fifty-three and defeat that bad guy with the hard name. Maybe when we beat him, we get to go home!"

Dantenar didn't look so sure. "I don't know, maybe we should ask somebody."

"Who, the creepy voice? Dantenar, there's no one to ask. And don't try the Death Caps, believe me. They're not in the mood for talking."

Dantenar made a weird noise, and I finally placed it as a giggle. "Dantenar, no laughing, we have to beat the game so we can get home!"

Dantenar cracked up. "It's just the way you worded that, it sounded so funny and I'm so stressed and laughing is a good way to relieve stress. It says so in Ms. Sharitin's Woman's Day magazine."

I started laughing to. Soon we couldn't stop and so we just laughed helplessly for a long time. Finally, I managed to get a hold of myself. "Okay, sister, we've got to get to level fifty-three." I turned and speared a topaz gel. A yellow light, with little stars, started from my feet and went up my body, a little circle around me.

"You have gained new skills," the creepy voice said.

I looked at Dantenar. "I wonder what that means?"

Dantenar shrugged. Her features were odd, a mixture of herself and her characters. "Maybe you should touch that little Red Cross insignia on your left shoulder." I followed her advice, and a little book popped up in front of me. I had five points to spend on one page, two to spend on the other.

"Uh," I said, and touched Strength, Vitality and Dexterity on the first page. Three points went away, and I felt stronger and healthier. I also had a better idea on how to fight. "Okay, um," I muttered to myself and pushed Vitality again, twice. The points both went away and that page went blank. I somehow knew that my pitchforks were polearm class, and so I pushed that on the second page, and also the Critical Strike button.

I looked up to see Dantenar staring at me. "Wow. How'd you know what to do, what to press?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, sis. It just sort of come to me. Like second nature, you know, that kind of thing. I think I'm getting the hang of these," I added, lifting the pitchforks speculatively. Dantenar looked like she didn't know what to think.

"Well," she said, "we'd better keep going. We have a long way to go to get to level fifty-three," she added, gesturing to a little white sign that said "level one" in the upper right hand corner of the Dungeon. At least, it looked like a Dungeon. We tentatively started forwards. Dantenar held her poleaxe at the ready, the thing taller than she was. As we turned the corner, a tunnel rat rushed her. She reacted quickly, spinning her poleaxe and hitting it. It squeaked. She slashed at it and it fell over.

The little circle of yellow light went up around her as the creepy voice said, "You have gained in experience and skill." the book appeared in front of her. I looked over her shoulder as she touched Strengh twice, Vitality twice and Dexterity once. That page of the book went blank, and she assigned one point to polearm, one to Critical Strike on the other page.

"Good choices," I told her. "Now let's go." We journeyed on through the seemingly endless tunnels. Whenever we had to stop and rest, the creepy voice said,

"You are exhausted" or "Your stamina is low." It got really annoying. Finally, my inventory was full and so was Dantenar's. We had filled up our pets inventory as well, which made no sense considering half the weapons were bigger than the dogs were. But I managed to scrounge up a Town Portal scroll and we returned to town.

When I had sold all my stuff and was waiting for Dantenar to do the same, I bought a fishing pole and started fishing off the little dock by the lake I had found. I caught a fish almost immediately. Floating words above it said "Fingerling Ruffy." I looked at it quizzically, then shrugged and threw it onto the dock. Trouble ran over and gobbled it up, quickly, before I could stop him. "Trouble!" I groaned. With a blue explosion, a Gryphon stood where my beloved dog had stood before. "Yikes!" I shouted and jumped back.

Zarathel? What happened? The world is so much smaller, Trouble's voice sounded in my head. I cocked my head at the Gryphon.

"Trouble?"

The one and only, he replied. Who'd you think I was, Fiddlestix? Honestly, I love my sister but she gets into more pickles than I do. She's practically dead.

We both watched as Dantenar and Fiddlestix went to a girl with the words "Dreya the Healer" floating above her head. When they came back, they were both in perfect health. Me and Trouble went next.

"I am a healer by nature. Will you allow me to soothe your wounds?" she asked. I nodded.

"You feel refreshed," the creepy voice said.

I glared up at the sky, squinting as the sun got in my eyes. "I didn't need you to tell me that. As always, the voice never answered. I rolled my eyes, and we stepped back into the portal.

I found stairs leading down, and we looked at each other. "Should we?"

"We have to, it's the only way to get to level fifty-three," Dantenar answered. We started down the stairs. As soon as our feet touched the stairs, we were standing on level two. I took two steps, then stopped short as a huge rat bathed in a red glow came towards us. The words "Screamdrinker the Unstoppable" floated above its head.

"Uh-oh," we both said at the same time.


	3. The first trials

Disclaimer: Still don't own FATE or any of the bad guys, and I don't own the R.O.U.S's from The Princess Bride, either

Chapter Three

_Dantenar's POV_

Screamdrinker the Unstoppable advanced, the rats red eyes glittering in the faint light. I gulped and held my poleaxe at the ready. "Zarathel?" She looked at me. "It was nice being your twin," I said to her.

"Dantenar! This isn't the time, we aren't going to die, I promise you!" She tried to spear him with her pitchfork, but it missed. The word "miss" floated up. She gritted her teeth. "This isn't fair."

I swung at Screamdrinker, and it connected, probably because my weapon was longer. "-4 HP" floated up from the giant rat. In the back of my mind, the R.O.U.S's from The Princess Bride popped up. I almost laughed.

Finally, Zarathel lunged forward and poked Screamdrinker twice with her pitchforks, once with each one. I chopped at him and finally, with a squeak of pain, he fell over. A funny looking bone club with the word "Cludrip" floating above it popped out of thin air and fell to the ground. Zarathel picked it up. "I like the feel of this. One of her pitchforks disappeared and the Cludrip thing replaced it. She whirled around and hit a topaz gel with it, and the little level up circle floated up around her.

"You gain experience and skill," the creepy voice said.

Zarathel sighed. "This is starting to get on my nerves." I laughed. She assigned two points to strength, two to Dexterity and one to Vitality on the first page. It went blank. (A/N: you know how this works by now) She then assigned one point to Critical Strike and one to Mace/Club Skill on the other.

Feeling much better now that Screamdrinker was dead, I let down my guard slightly. Fiddlestix was running around behind me, playing with Trouble, and I started forward. "Come on, Zara, we've got to get to level fifty-three."

She followed me around a few corners, Fiddlestix and Trouble following her, until I stopped short. "Wow!" An anvil sat in front of me, giving off a bright white light, the words "Magic Anvil" floating above it.

I started forward, killed a Ruby Gel trying to kill me, and placed my poleaxe on the anvil.

"Fate has favored you," the creepy voice said, and four sockets appeared on my poleaxe.

"Wow," I said again. I held onto the handle of the poleaxe. It didn't feel any different. I couldn't even feel the sockets against my hands. I broke an urn and leather gloves-the words "socketed leather gloves" floating above them-popped out of the air and landed on the ground. I touched them, and they appeared on my hands. They had spikes on them. "Wow," I said a third time. There was a socket on the back of each one. Zarathel looked at me.

"You're just a socketed person today, Dantenar!" She looked a little jealous. I offered the spiked gloves to her. She shook her head. "No, you keep them. I'll find my own," she said, grinning a little. And sure enough, as soon as she opened the nearest "large chest", she found a "socketed vest" that had purple words. It was enchanted, but not identified. Somehow, she produced an Identify Scroll and identified it.

"Leather Vest of the Tortoise" the floating words said. "Ooh, a 1 Vitality bonus!" Zarathel said. She put the vest on. She was starting look like a warrioress, what with the vest, pitchfork and Cludrip. "You know, technically I shouldn't be able to carry this," Zara said speculatively. "It requires 49 Strength, and I don't have that much. Maybe the game wants us to succeed."

I shrugged. "We'll never know, I suppose."

Zara touched a Weapons Rack and two Forest Bows popped off. She put them in her inventory and we kept going. It went like this for another ten or fifteen minutes, then I turned and saw it. A ruby gel with a red glow. I groaned. "Not another one." The word "Brud'durak" floated above it.

"Bother," Zarathel said. "It was going to well, too." We both raised our weapons, but Fiddlestix and Trouble beat us to it. They attacked the ruby gel together, effectively distracting it as Zara and I attacked from behind. It was to busy trying to get at the dogs to notice us, and it was soon dead. While we were fighting it, topaz and emerald gels kept attacking, so eventually I let Zara kill the thing and protected us both from the other gels. I leveled up in the process.

"You have gained new skills," the creepy voice said.

I gritted my teeth. "Not right now, creepy voice!" As usual, the voice said nothing. I rolled my eyes and finished off the last topaz gel and assigned my points exactly the same as last time: Strength twice, Vitality twice and Dexterity once on the first page, Critical Strike and Polearm Skill on the other.

We descended a level once we found the stairs down, and the first thing we saw on level three was a Death Cap coming towards us. Trouble, who had just lost his Gryphon form, got it, Fiddlestix joining him about halfway through.

I had gotten a quest up in town, and now I started looking around for "Adadh", a Mottled Lurker, which I guessed was a spider or something. We explored around, and finally I saw him. By this time, I had figured out what to do and wasn't nervous anymore. I quicky and humanely killed the spider, the collected the "Assassin's Blade of Sapping"

"You have completed a quest," the creepy voice said.

I ignored it. "Okay, I've got to get to town and return this to Seever. Coming?" I asked my twin, and she nodded. I opened the portal and we stepped in.

We appeared in the Town of Grove, and I found Seever. He gave me a lot of gold, a lot of Fame and a "Cloth Belt of the Tortoise", which gave me a 1 Vitality bonus. We went to Dreya the Healer and returned to Dungeon level three.

After descending five more levels and killing Eyeripper the Ruthless(Hag), Almgroth(Zombie, Khuzorogul the Ghastly(Ruby Gel) and Faceater the Detested(Nocturne Fungus), I was more than ready to go home.

A/N: A Nocturne Fungus is like a Death Cap, which looks like a walking mushroom, only purple and white instead of pink and green. Other than that they're the same.

"Zarathel?" I asked.

"Yes?" Zara looked at me. We'd each leveled up around two or three times in the five levels we'd descended. Now we were on level ten, not even close to being half-way to level fifty-three.

"I wanna go home." I tried not to sound like a whining baby, but I was tired, hungry and nearly dead. At least that's what my red health bar on my left sleeve said. I broke an urn, and a "major health potion" dropped onto the floor. I touched it, and my health bar went all the way to full. "I feel better," I muttered.

Zarathel was sympathetic. "I want to go home to, but we have to beat that guy with the hard name first! The sooner we get there, the sooner we can beat him and get home."

I was almost crying. "I want to go home now!" I insisted. Zara put a hand on my shoulder, and I pulled myself together. "Right. Well, we're done with this level," I said, inspecting the map floating next to me, on the left. "Let's go down." We ran to the stairs, stopping twice as we ran out of breath.

"You are exhausted." the creepy voice said.

By this time we'd learned not to yell at it. It didn't do a lick of good.

We descended to level eleven, and came face to face with a FATE statue. "Oh boy!" I shouted and immediately began prying at the gems the statue had for eyes.

"Fate has favored you," the creepy voice said.

Two Superior Opals popped out of the statue, and I instantly installed them in my poleaxe. Now, whenever I walked a cloud of white followed me. My poleaxe now had +48 electric resistance and +24 electrical damage. Zara glared at me. "You could have let me have one, you know."

I belatedly remembered her. "Sorry, Zarathel, you can have the next one, promise!" We turned a corner and Zara, still glaring at me, walked straight into another FATE statue. "What luck!" I said.

Zara tried to stay mad, but failed and started laughing. She pried two Bloodstones from the statue and installed one in her socketed vest, the other in her pitchfork.

"Come on, we have to find Gassh the Bloody!" Zara said. I followed her until we found a Goblin with five Noxious Gels defending him. "Gassh the Bloody" floated above his head. "This must be our lucky day," Zara muttered, but we waded in with a will. Fiddlestix bit a Noxious Gel and was poisoned.

"Fiddlestix, Fiddlestix, Fiddlestix," I said reprovingly but kept fighting. I killed two of the Noxious Gels, left Zarathel to kill the last one, as she'd killed two as well, and started on Gassh the Bloody. Together we finished him off, returned to town so Zarathel could claim her reward and came back down after getting healed and selling everything in our inventory.

We went into the opening where the stairs going down were, and I stumbled over a raised place in the floor.

"You might want to be careful around here. These levels just get more dangerous as you descend," a voice said. It wasn't Zarathel's. We both whirled around to find a young man, maybe around twenty, standing behind us.

He wore blue and white armor, and looked just like the guy on the font of the box. His dog, Kaos, sat behind him. Both were dirty and looked exhausted. "I'm Kile," the man offered, and stuck out his hand, which we both shook politely. "I've been trapped in this game for six years."


	4. Kile

_Disclaimer: The only things I own in this story are Fiddlestix, Dantenar, Zarathel and Kile._

Chapter Four

From the Previous Chapter...

_We went into the opening where the stairs going down were, and I stumbled over a raised place in the floor._

_"You might want to be careful around here. These levels just get more dangerous as you descend," a voice said. It wasn't Zarathel's. We both whirled around to find a young man, maybe around twenty, standing behind us. _

_He wore blue and white armor, and looked just like the guy on the font of the box. His dog, Kaos, sat behind him. Both were dirty and looked exhausted. "I'm Kile," the man offered, and stuck out his hand, which we both shook politely. "I've been trapped in this game for six years."_

_Dantenar's POV_:

I looked at Kile, my eyes widening with horror. "Six years!? How do you stand it? And how'd you get trapped, anyway?" Suddenly I had a thought. "What if we get trapped, too?"

Kile shook his head, his eyes glinting with amusement. "No, you probably won't get trapped. The only reason I got trapped is because I went up and talked to the wizard after killing the monster that the game told me to. The one on level forty-nine."

Zarathel looked envious. "Ours is on level fifty-three. I'm Zarathel, by the way, and this is Dantenar."

Kile looked shocked at those names. "Dantenar...Zarathel..." his voice trailed off. His eyes got an odd look in them. "Do you have any siblings?"

I started to say no, that we didn't have any siblings, but Zara spoke first. "Yeah, we did have an older brother. He disappeared six years ago, after he went to the boys home. We were only eleven at the time."

Now that she mentioned it, I did remember an older brother. "Why did you want to know?"

Kile just shook his head. "No reason." But he had a reason, I was sure of it. There was something familiar about his eyes. I let the matter drop, however, because I didn't feel like pressing him. Our dogs were busy getting acquainted, and didn't pay any attention whatsoever when we called them.

"Fiddlestix!" I shouted. "Get over here!" When she didn't come, I grabbed her collar and dragged her away. "You come when you're called," I reproved her.

Her ears drooped. _Sorry, Dantenar. Kaos is really nice,_ she remarked. I relented, giving her a hug.

"Come on, we've got to keep moving," Kile called, and we were on our way. We explored in silence for a few minutes, but then we walked into a large room. It was filled to bursting with bad guys. "Oh, no, not again!" Kile groaned. "This level is always full of 'em." I looked around, trying to find out what he was talking about. There were a couple of Ogres that had me worried, but he was looking at a large spider with lots of spider babies with distaste. "I hate Mother Widows and Widowlings." Kile looked like he meant it, too.

I gulped and got ready to fight. I'd leveled up eight times, so I had pretty good skills, but this was the first time I'd really had to fight for my life. The Ogres came first. We fought back energetically at first, but after the first two, my arms were killing me and it didn't look like I was going to make it.

Kile had a huge pile of spiders at his feet, working on more all the time. The little spiders gave him the most trouble. His health bar, which had gone down hardly at all, was green, which meant that he was poisoned. I didn't trouble him about it. He knew what he was doing.

I turned my attention back to fighting, but not after noticing that Zarathel was busily working on some Vampire Bats, a whole cloud of them. She'd turned Trouble into a Venomous Wyvern, it looked like, because all the Vampire Bats health bars were green, too.

I killed the last of the Ogres and glanced at my health bar. Half gone already. "Darn it!" I muttered, but I didn't have time to drink a health potion, because now a whole army of gels, all different colors, had chosen that very moment to attack I groaned, but waded in with a will. Soon, there were lots of red, white and green dots on the floor. I took the oppurtunity to see what a gel felt like. It was roughly the consistency of jello, but didn't jiggle as much. I shrugged. Half wondering if they tasted like jello, I kept fighting them.

I had just finished the last one when **she** jumped at me. By "she" I mean Eye-eater the Improbably Named. I rolled my eyes at the floating words, but she was hard to fight. Hags always are. Hags are blue, and have long arms that they swing back and forth. So I had to dodge flying arms and poke and slash at the same time.

_What is the world coming to?_ I thought, desperately defending myself. _Hags with weird names, an army of gels, a whole bunch of Cursed Swords...the list goes on and on. Never mind, just keep fighting!_ I told myself.

Wait a minute: Cursed Swords? Oh, no. And a whole group of them! This wasn't good. Not at all. I finished off Eye-eater and nervously turned to the Cursed Swords, that were for some reason only attacking me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zarathel and Kile back to back, fighting Goblings, Goblin Shamans, Forest Imps and Forest Imp Shamans.

_Poor guys,_ I had time to think, and then the swords were upon me. It was odd to see swords slashing at you with no one holding them. That made me think about that Dr. Suess Story about the pants with nobody inside them. I shook the thought from my head. Time to concentrate on the now, not my not-so-happy childhood. Not that Ms. Sharitin wasn't nice, it's just that she wasn't our parents. Never mind. _Concentrate on the swords_, I told myself again. For the third time.

I killed maybe one or two, took a look at my health bar, which had maybe a centimeter left, and killed a third. Then Goblinkicker the Ruthless joined in. It slashed at me, and the last centimeter disappeared. I fell down, the world going black.

"You have perished," the creepy voice said.

_Zarathel's POV_:

I saw Dantenar fall, and an insane rage filled me. A red mist fell over everything, and I felt myself howling. I took on Goblinkicker the Ruthless and the entire gang of Cursed Swords, and killed every last one of them. Then I took on the Yeti. All by myself. And I killed that, too. Kile finished off the last Minotaur and knelt by Dantenar's side.

I fell to my knees beside him and started crying, the redness over my sight falling away. The tears fell down my face in torrents. "She's dead," I sobbed. Kile put a hand on my arm.

"Don't worry. She's just choosing her fate."

I stood, glaring at him. "Don't worry? Don't worry!? My twin is dead, probably in real life, too, and all you can say is 'Don't worry'!? Men!" I sank back down, my tirade having exhausted me.

"You are exhausted," the creepy voice said.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Kile winced. "Not so loud, please, Zara."

Suddenly, Dantenar groaned and sat up. "Dantenar!" I said happily. In fact, happiness doesn't describe the wild emotions going through me at that given second. Over-joyed and elated do, sort of, but not quite. I hugged my twin, then, out of impulse, I hugged Kile, too. That felt right.

He was sort of hard to hug, what with the armor and all, but I managed pretty well. I mean, my sister wasn't dead, after all!

"What's going on? What did the creepy voice mean, 'You have perished'?" Dantenar asked. She was confused, one eyebrow raised in bewilderment.

"When you run out health, you perish," Kile explained. "Then, you choose your fate. Which one did you choose?"

Dantenar shrugged. "The first one. He wanted so much Fame and Experience Points. It was better than the other two."

Kile looked confused. "Also, I've been wondering. How did you two get in the same game? You're only supposed to have one in a single game."

I shrugged. "I really don't know. We met up in level one or two, or maybe it was three. I don't really remember anymore. Does it matter?"

Kile shook his head. "No, not really. And how you got in my game I have no idea. Or how I got in yours. Oh well. We'd better get going. The down stairs are right over there," he said, indicating the little square in the floor with the stairs spiraling down into blackness.

We followed him down, praying that level twelve would be easier. When we got down and had finished off the Creeping Widow in the little room the stairs were in, Kile took a deep breath. "I guess I"d better tell you who I am, now." He seemed to be having trouble finding the right words. "I-I'm your older brother. The one that disappeared."

My mouth fell open. "What?"

"You're kidding?" Dantenar said at the exact same time.

Kile shook his head. "I'm you're older brother, I can prove it. I know your middle name, Dantenar Elizabeth." He looked at me. "And yours, Zarathel Georgette." He had to be my brother. I'd never told anyone my middle name before. Would you? I mean, Georgette?

Dantenar through herself forward and hugged Kile. He made a whooshing sound as the air left his lungs, but he gave a happy smile. I joined in the hug, finally figuring out what it was like to have an older brother.

_Authors Note: How's that for a sappy ending to a chapter? Next one won't be as much fighting or secrets finally told, promise. Read and review!_


	5. Who's the new guy?

Chapter Five

_Dantenar's POV_:

Level thirteen. Lots of monsters are on level thirteen, in case you were wondering. Kile, who had leveled up like forty times, had no trouble dealing with them, but Zara and me did. I had only leveled up twelve times! I had a quest to fulfill, though. Gimbo Tel, the Zombie in the graveyard, had charged me with killing "Foolchewer the Kobold" and it's Tunnel Crawler minions. My reward was to be a "Dragonhammers Aiding Military Spear," or something like that.

"Kile?" When he looked up, I asked, "What's a Kobold?"

Kile just pointed. "That." I turned and saw this odd wolf-like creature coming towards us. He was leading six Tunnel Crawlers. The word "Foolchewer" floated above his head.

I smiled happily. "What luck!" I said, and got started with a will. I had to admit that the poleaxe I had, even if it did do +24 electrical damage, was a little hard to handle and not to mention heavy. _If I ever find a spear or sword or something that's good, I"ll use it,_ I decided.

Finally, Foolchewer died and I had finished off the last of his Tunnel Crawlers. At least, I assumed it was a guy. Foolchewer could've been a girl, for all I knew.

"You have completed a quest," the creepy voice said.

I ignored it. I was getting pretty good at it, too. I used a town portal scroll, popped up to town, talked to Gimbo Tel and was looking at the spear within the minute. It was nice. It had a lot of fire damage, hence the name Dragonhammers Aiding Military Spear, probably. I liked the feel of it, and so I put my poleaxe in my storage trunk by the Dungeon Gate and used the spear instead. When I returned to Dungeon Level twelve, Kile and Zara were waiting for me.

"Sorry to take so long," I told them. Zara rolled her eyes expressively, managing to get her point across without saying a word. She had an uncanny ability to do that, I noticed.

Kile coughed uncomfortably. "Well, let's keep going. No sense in waiting any longer than we have to, right?" He led the way through the little passages, letting us take on most of the monsters. They weren't to hard, at this point. Kile said they'd get harder as we descended. He said that Yeti's lurked on level seventeen and down. I had gulped at that. I broke an urn and a flawless Ruffy plopped onto the floor. I fed it to Fiddlestix, and she turned into a Gryphon.

"She'll stay that way forever, you know," Kile said. "That's what Flawless means. You feed your dog fish, it turns into some kind of animal for a varying duration of time, unless it's a flawless fish. Then it turns your pet into that animal forever. Until you get out of the game, of course, or feed it some other fish."

That was the longest speech I'd ever heard him utter at one point in time. Maybe that meant he was feeling more comfortable with us. I sure hoped so. After all, he was in his twenties (twenty-two, to be exact) and hadn't seen another soul in six years.

Zara rounded a corner in front of us and stopped short, and we ran to her side. A guy, his cat helping him, was fighting a cursed sword. He eventually beat it and, spotting us, came forward. He was wary, gripping his weapons tightly, until he could talk to us.

"Hello," he said, cautiously. He had nice armor on, not quite as nice as the white Guardian Armor Kile had, but then again, he probably hadn't been trapped in the game for six years. "I'm Jaron, and this is my cat, Juute." His voice was quiet, as if he hadn't used it in a while. "Why are you here? Who are you, anyway?"

I stuck out my hand, which he hesitantly shook. "I"m Dantenar, and this is my dog, Fiddlestix. These are my companions and family members. My twin sister, Zarathel, and her dog, Trouble," I said, gesturing to them, "And Kile, my older brother, and his dog, Kaos. Pleased to meet you, sir."

Jaron looked slightly taken aback. "Um, hi. Nice to meet you all, I'm sure. How are you in my game?"

Kile stepped forward, shook Jaron's hand and told him, "I was just about to ask you the same thing. I thought it odd when my little sisters showed up, but now a third? This is getting even more bizarre."

Jaron shrugged. He looked confused, tired and dirty, just like everyone else I'd met. Except for the ones in town. Which amounted to my twin, my older brother and him. "I don't know. All I know is that I have to get to level forty-seven and defeat Khuzoragul the Ghastly."

Zarathel invited him to travel with us, an offer that Jaron gladly excepted. I found a weapons rack and touched it. Another spear, unidentified, and a large axe dropped onto the ground. I picked up the unidentified spear and identified it. It said that it was "Imikugal's Spear of the Tortoise," which had a lot of ice damage. I happily put it in my other hand.

Now, whenever I walked, a cloud of white followed me on one side, a cloud of red on the other. That and my spiked gloves and the spiked boots I'd found on level seven made me feel more safe in the game. By this time I also had studded armor and a full-face helm with little bat wings on the side.

When I leveled up next, about two minutes later, I gave myself both spear points on the second page, sticking to my original plan on the first: two Strength, two Vitality and one Dexterity. Jaron and Kile talked quietly while we walked, no doubt comparing stories.

Jaron, we found out, had been in the game for a while, but had yet to get to level forty-seven. He was coming up one level at a time from level twenty-four, deciding that he needed to level up more and get better armor and weapons.

Zarathel and I were also talking. Only we were talking about what to do when we got out of the game. Neither of us said the words we were both thinking: If we got out of the game. It was almost starting to seem that way.

"Zara, do you miss mom and dad?" I asked suddenly. Wow, what an out of the blue type of question was that, and where had it come from?

Zara looked thoughtful. "Well, I miss dad. I don't know if I miss mom. We never met her. She died right after we were born, remember? We never got the chance to bond with her."

I nodded. "Dad was always so kind to us. Even though he missed mom terribly, he always found time to play a game after he got home from work, or to read us a story, or some other thing that we needed. Especially after Kile disappeared," I added. "I think that's what did him in." Come to think of it, we'd never really learned what had happened to our father. I resolved to find out as soon as we got out of the confounded game.

"Yeah," Zara said. She walked forward and got attacked by a large chest, that was actually a "mimic" according to the floating words. They'd never steered us wrong before. Zara sighed. "Yet another monster to deal with." She finished it and kept walking.

The four of us walked single file, the dogs sort of looking at the cat with distrust. The cat, Juute, had large green eyes and looked very innocent. Yet I'd seen him fight. He was deadly. Fiddlestix, who usually didn't like cats, for some reason liked Juute. She was walking with him, talking, I supposed. I couldn't actually hear her, but that's what it looked like she was doing.

When we descended to level fourteen, we walked into a whole room filled with monsters. Mostly spiders and gels, but there were a few Goblin Scouts, Bugbears and Jackal Fiends.

A/N: Bugbears look kind of like big cats walking around on two legs, Jackal Fiends like those statues protecting King Achmen'Ra from Night at the Museum.

Anyway, after fighting a Jackal Fiend, my health was down to almost zero.

"You're health is dangerously low," the creepy voice said.

I looked at Kile, and I knew my terror showed on my face. "I don't have any health potions," I told him in a scared voice. Kile got a determined look on his face, but his eyes widened as two Bugbears came up on us.

He spun his sword, stepping in front of me, and started fighting them both. At the same time. I started feeling guilty, and looked around for a health potion of any sort.

While the other three were occupied, I ran around the room, looking in all the urns. There were three traps, which I was fortunate enough to avoid, and I finally found a major health potion. My health restored to almost full, I ran back and assisted my friends (and family, except for Jaron) with the rest of the monsters.

I was starting to like Jaron. He was quiet, not real outgoing, but had a nice personality. In fact, I was beginning to think of him as a brother. If we ever got out of the game, I'd adopt him. Even if he already had a family.

Kile finished off the last of the Bugbears and turned to me. "Are you all right?" He asked, breathing hard. I hugged him, feeling the frantic beating of his heart against my cheek.

"I'm fine, big brother. Thanks," I told him. He was breathing hard after all the fighting, but he managed to smile at me.

Zarathel broke in. "Well, I'm sorry to break up this little conversation, but we really must be going. We still have 39 levels to go."

Zara had a point, so we went on. Six levels (and to many monsters to count) later, we were on level twenty. And that's where I encountered my first Yeti. I had gone ahead of the others, chasing after Fiddlestix, who had decided to run off. I skidded to a halt next to me dog, who was staring in shock at the huge white _thing_ in front of us. I don't know how to describe it. It was much, much taller than me, or even one of the boys, and it had white fur.

It spotted us and roared, coming towards us. I held my spears at the ready. He started pounding the floor at Fiddlestix, who nimbly avoided his fists, distracting him. I took the oppurtunity to start on the Yeti. A couple seconds later, it was finished. The Yeti had been to busy fighting Fiddlestix to notice me until it was to late.

Kile came into the room, followed closely by Jaron and Zarathel, who were followed closely by the pets, and they all saw me standing by the thing. "That was hard," I remarked to them, and Kile started laughing.

"Trust Dantenar to make light of the situation," he said between chuckles. "That's definitely my sister."

I almost glowed with pride. I had killed my first Yeti, even though I didn't like killing at all, without getting hurt. And I had done it humanely. That was always my goal. Get the killing done with as soon as possible and avoid hurting the thing to badly.

Jaron just smiled. I got the feeling he felt a little uncomfortable being the only member of the group who was not in the same family. Zarathel went up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Jaron, I adopt you as an honorary brother." In a strict voice she added, "And don't dare abuse the power."

Now Jaron laughed outright. I grinned, Kile grinned, Zarathel grinned, and the dogs panted. Juute just sat down and started cleaning his front paws. _ Just like a cat to clean in the middle of a battlefield,_ I thought.

Kile stood abruptly. "Time to go. We can't linger here to long, or more monsters will find our position. And believe me, they'll come in waves."

At these solemn words, we all started walking towards the nearest down stairs. Most of us had quests on level twenty-one. Mine was to Torvus, a monk, who wanted me to destroy some Naga and its Goblin minions. I had no idea what a Naga was, but I bet it wasn't nice.

When we descended, we were in a small room that had no monsters, for once. Fiddlestix, who was no longer a Gryphon since I'd fed her a Fingerling Darter, was half dead. I resolved to find a health potion for her as soon as possible. I couldn't for the life of me remember what a Fingerling Darter turned your pet into, but it was good, whatever it was.


	6. In sickness and in Health

Chapter Six

_Zarathel's POV_:

Dantenar looked exhausted all over again. She shuffled instead of walking, looking at the floor in front of her with unusual concentration. She broke open an urn with her spear, fed the health potion inside to Fiddlestix and kept walking. Er, shuffling. She turned a corner and gasped, and I heard her jump back in surprise. I hurried forwards to see what had startled her.

There, standing in front my my sister, was a green snake-like thing. It had the head and shoulders and arms of a man, sort of, but the rest of it was like a serpent. It was green and carried a long sword. Kile started forward, but I held him back.

"It's Dantenar's quest, let her do it."

He fought me for a second, but then stopped as Dantenar raised her spears, put her feet together, and bowed. Surprisingly, the Naga did the same thing, minus putting his feet together. (I'd decided it was a he. It just looked like a guy)

With surprising speed, Dantenar dashed forwards and used her spears quite effectively. The Naga didn't even have time to react. He was dead within the minute. "School-girl trick," Dantenar panted, addressing the dead Naga.

She took two steps forward, stumbled, and fell. Kile ran to her side immediately, feeling for her pulse.

"Not good," he muttered. "She's very weak," he told the rest of us as he picked Dantenar up. He held her like a baby or a young child, one arm under her shoulders, the other under her knees. He stood and turned to Jaron. "Do you have a town portal scroll?"

Jaron, who looked very worried, shook his head. "Sorry, I used my last one last time we went to town."

Kile looked at me, his eyes hopeful. I shook his head, sorry to see the hope leave his gaze. "I only had one and I used it fairly early in the game. I haven't had time to buy a new book."

Kile squared his shoulders. "Well, then I'll just have to find one. Well, you will. I've got my hands full."

Jaron looked panicked. "But what if we run into a whole bunch of monsters again? You're on level forty-nine, remember? We need you to help fight. You're the strongest out of all of us. And the best at fighting."

Kile bit his lip. "Uh...okay. Jaron, you carry her," he said, gently putting Dantenar in Jaron's arms, and continued, "Zarathel will walk behind you, I will walk in front. The pets can take care of the sides. As soon as we find a town portal scroll, we'll use it to get back to town and get Dreya to heal her."

I heartily approved of this plan. Jaron, who was looking like he didn't know what to do with himself, agreed in his soft way.

We set off at once, Kile in front, me behind. Juute, Fiddlestix, Trouble and Kaos followed orders as well, two pets on each side. For once they stuck close, and didn't run off as they usually did. I was glad of that. They at least could tell when they were needed.

Jaron, who was holding Dantenar as carefully as though she was made of porcelain, was pretty strong. He didn't act as if she was heavy or anything. Not that she was. The doctor said that she was below the average weight for our age group. 110 _is_ pretty light.

Dantenar groaned, her head moving, and Jaron almost dropped her in surprise. "What's going on?" She asked. Her voice was low and raspy, as if it hurt to talk. "Why are you carrying me?" She looked at Jaron in confusion.

Jaron looked away. "You just collapsed back there. We're trying to get you to Dreya."

Dantenar snorted, sounding like her old self. "Nonsense. All I need is a health potion. Do you have one?" she raised an eyebrow.

Jaron, looking at Kile for permission, gently set her down and groped around inside his inventory. He pulled out a green bottle, and gently handed it to her. "One swallow. It should restore you to full health."

Dantenar swallowed and gave the little bottle back to him. Her color improved rapidly, but she was still weak. "What was that?" She looked at the bottle, which Jaron was putting back inside his inventory. "Some sort of charm?"

Jaron nodded. "Super healing charm. It will do practically anything." He helped her up, and she tried to walk, but ended up almost falling. Jaron had to help her in the end, not that she looked happy about this. "Oh, come on," Jaron told her. "You were very sick. You won't be able to walk right off the bat, you know. It's pretty foolish to think that, no offense."

Dantenar humphed. "None taken, I guess," she said, sounding forlorn. She had to lean on Jaron heavily, which was probably making her uncomfortable. She'd never been comfortable around boys in the first place. Unless they were a couple years younger, like the ones at the home.

Home. That thought almost made me cry. Suddenly, I couldn't wait to get to level fifty-three and kill that...thing with the impossible name. Yahz'rod the Emperor Abomination.

Kile opened a door, walked into a large room and stopped short. Dantenar tried to quicken her pace, to see what it was, and almost fell. Jaron put an arm around her waist to keep her up. "Careful, young lady," he cautioned her.

Dantenar glared at him. "I'm not young. I'm seventeen, I'll have you know." Her eyes shot daggers. Unexpectedly, Jaron started to laugh. "What's so funny?" Dantenar hissed. She was getting angry. I could see the signs a million miles away.

"You're only seventeen," Jaron managed. "That's young."

"Young!?" Dantenar said in an indignant voice. "Well, then how old are you?"

"Twenty-one," Jaron said quietly, his laughter gone. "I think. I don't know, I've been trapped here, like Kile, for quite some time. Not quite six years. Maybe closer to two."

Dantenar's anger disappeared. "Oh, I'm sorry." She sounded truly sorry, too. "I didn't know, I shouldn't have asked," she stopped talking as Kile beckoned us inside.

I entered the room last, after the two I was starting to think secretly liked each other. Probably not. Kile was standing a little to one side, and he whispered, "Don't move to quickly, look." He pointed to a couple of Trolls on the other side of the room. "They don't have good eyesight, just good hearing. Don't move fast, stay quiet, and they should be easy."

It was nice having a guide who knew his way around down here. Dantenar almost gasped when she saw the Trolls, but put a hand over her mouth instead. Jaron tightened his grasp on her, obviously trying to protect her. It was a sweet thing to do, even if it didn't really help her calm down.

Kile started forward, moving very slowly and keeping the sound of his breathing down to a minimum. The Trolls looked around suspiciously, but didn't look threatened. I took a deep breath, quietly of course, and slowly followed Kile. Kile pulled out his swords, carefully, so that the metal didn't rasp against his armor, and held them at the ready as we got closer.

Dantenar started to follow, still weak but able to walk. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jaron grab her arm and pull her back, pointing to a Large Basilisk coming towards them. Dantenar grinned, her eyes lighting up. I could just imagine her thinking "finally, something I can beat easily."

When we were right behind the Trolls, Kaos and Trouble zoomed up and started attacking. The Trolls turned and Kile and I froze. The dogs teamed up on one of th Trolls, leaving the two others for Kile and myself. I held my Cludrip and Crystal Mace(which I had acquired in level seventeen) up and whirled into action.

The Troll I'd chosen to fight was taken by surprise. I had him half-dead before he'd even realized what'd hit him. I rolled my eyes at the things stupidity. Not like they were actually known for their brains, but the time he'd finished looking around for me, I'd nearly finished him. He hit me once, taking away one meager health point or HP for short.

I finished him and saw that Kile had already killed his and was helping the dogs with theirs. I started back to Dantenar and saw that she and Jaron had teamed up to kill some Goblins. They must have been the Naga's minions. Odd that they weren't in the same room as it. But then I realized that I was wrong as a Naga named "Pencileater the Bloody" glided into the fight.

Jaron took over the Goblins as Dantenar started on Pencileater. The monsters had such odd names in this game. Pencileater put up quite a fight, his red glow pulsing as he attacked my sister. Dantenar finished him off quickly enough, helped by her Military Spear and her other spear. I actually had no idea what it did. By the looks of it, ice damage. Hence the white cloud, probably.

"You have completed a quest," the creepy voice said. Dantenar ignored it as usual.

Kile turned to me and the other two, not even breathing hard. Kaos and Trouble were looking very pleased with themselves, and I took that to mean that they had beaten the thing without Kile's help.

I was impressed with Kile's fighting skills. I guess being trapped in a game for six years lets you level up a whole bunch.

Speaking of leveling up, I was able to do that now. I touched the red cross sign on my left shoulder and assigned my points, then saw that Dantenar was doing the same thing. Jaron smiled at me as I glanced at him.

"You two are something else," He told me.

I didn't know what he meant, and said so.

"Never mind."

I accepted his answer and looked to Kile for guidance on what do do next.

"We should probably return to town, get ourselves healed and get our quest items," He said. "Does anybody have a town portal?"

Dantenar nodded. "Yeah, I have a whole book of them."

Kile slapped his forehead. "We didn't think to check in her inventory, did we?" Jaron and I shook our heads no. "Oh well. Let's go to town. Almost halfway there," he said encouragingly.

Dantenar looked disappointed at that. "I'm actually beginning to like this. What if we stayed forever? Beats living at home. We could always leave when we got bored..." her voice trailed off as I looked at her in alarm.

"Dantenar, what are you saying!? You actually want to stay?" I felt my eyes widening in shock at her statement.

She looked uncomfortable. "Well, our lives at home weren't the greatest, if you remember. Sure, Ms. Sharitin is nice and all, but we didn't have any parents, never got adopted, our schooling isn't all that great and that'll be a problem when we try to find jobs." She shook her head. "Still, I do miss taking baths," she said ruefully.

I laughed at that.

"Come on," Kile said, opening the town portal, "Let's go."


	7. Some Frightening News

Chapter Seven

_Dantenar's POV_:

We returned to town to sell what we had in our inventories and to get healed by Dreya. Zarathel still hadn't given up on convincing Dreya to come into the Dungeon with us.

"If you come with us and heal us whenever we need it, I'll keep you safe," Zara promised. "Please? With sugar and whipped topping and sprinkles and a cherry on top? I'll even add chocolate sauce..."

"Hello!" Dreya said as I approached. "I am a healer by trade. Will you allow me to soothe your wounds?" That's all she ever said. It was probably programmed into the game. Because none of the other characters ever said anything other than what they always said, except for Del Arnes, who alternated between "What can I do for ya?" and "Don't be wasting my time."

Kile sold the weapons he'd gotten and came over. "Go to Torvus and get your reward, Dantenar," He told me.

I went. Torvus gave me a large amount of money (12,000 GP((gold pieces))) and a whole bunch of fame, along with a "Holy Heavy Ring of Dexterity" which I sold. It required to much magic to use.

Jaron was kneeling next to Juute, who was looking bored. Juute started purring as Jaron absentmindedly stroked him. Suddenly, he stood and walked over to the dock, sitting down on the edge and fishing. He jerked up his line and fed the very fake looking fish to Juute, who turned into a Gargoyle.

"Come on, we're going back down," Kile told me as we started towards the town portal. Jaron was waiting for us there. We linked arms, just in case one of us was slower than the rest, and stepped through.

We got to level twenty-five, which was almost the halfway mark. I was excited. "Halfway there, Zara, halfway there!" I whispered. Kile and Jaron were having a conversation in front of us, with serious looks and much gesturing. "I wonder what's going on?" I added.

Zara shrugged. "I don't know. Trouble, go find out, okay?" Her dog looked up at her in exasperation, but went willingly enough. A couple minutes later, he returned. "He couldn't understand what they were talking about," Zara said in a disappointed tone. "Darn! I was hoping to find out."

I patted her arm in a comforting way. "It's all right, Zarathel. I'm sure they'll tell us soon enough."

My assumption was correct. After a few more minutes of talking, the boys (well, actually young men) came over.

"Dantenar, Zarathel, we have to tell you something," Kile said. He never got around to actually saying it, however, because at that very moment, a whole crowd of Cursed Swords chose to attack. I groaned.

_Not again,_ I thought to myself. _Last time I fought these, I died. Luckily there's no sword with a red glow._ That was comforting. Swords with red glows are very hard to defeat, you see. The last one had killed me with one swing.

I ended up back to back with with the others as the Cursed Swords surrounded us. I gave it my all, lunging and poking and prodding at those stupid Swords until there were none left. We had all finished off quite a few, as there had been least ten of the confounded things.

I drank a health potion at once as soon as we'd finished off the last one. Then I picked up the studded buckler that one of the things had dropped. It wasn't identified. I identified it, found out that it was a "Studded Bucker of Life" and sent it to Fiddlestix's inventory.

"Come on, we have to get to our respective levels as fast as possible," Kile said, and we were on our way. He led us down one passage after another, letting us finish off the monsters and level up. After all, as he put it, "I have been trapped here for years and leveled up plenty of times. You need to level up all you can so you have no trouble with Kuhz'rod the Emperor Abomination."

He had a point, so we - meaning Zarathel and I - leveled up as many times as was possible on each level as we descended. Quests were fulfilled, level ups gained and better weapons and armor acquired. By the time we got to level thirty, I had gotten an Eyeslicer's Piercing Helm of Wealth, which caused enemies to drop 26 more gold, a chain shirt, chain gloves, chain boots and a chain belt. I'd decided to keep my spears, as I liked them very much and they did a fairly good amount of damage.

I was very proud of myself. I was well protected against enemies, had rings with special powers (13 Stamina bonus, 40 Chance of finding magical items) and could fight pretty well. Kile had taught us the basics, but said that everyone had their own fighting style. I'd found mine and was getting very good at it.

Zara had very good armor. She'd bought plate armor, which gave her extremely good protection against enemies and her Cludrip and Crystal Mace did a large amount of damage. She looked very dangerous in her armor. I personally preferred my own, because I had a better range of movement, but her health bar stayed higher than mine, so hers seemed to be better.

On level thirty-one, I got killed again. At this point, I decided that next time I leveled up, I'd increase my Dexterity a lot.

A/N: Dexterity helps you to dodge in battle, keeping you from getting hit as often.

Luckily for me, I leveled up as soon as I killed two Voltaic Gels. I increased my Dexterity by four points and my strength by one on the first page of the little book and my Spear Skill by two on the second.

_Kile's POV_:

I watched my sisters talking, smiling a little as Dantenar stabbed a Tunnel Rat in the middle of her sentence, not even appearing to notice what she'd done. Jaron stood next to me as I stopped, letting the girls catch up.

"You have wonderful sisters, Kile," he told me with a grin. "I wish I'd had siblings. I was an only child, you know. After having me, Mom couldn't have any more kids. I remember begging for a little brother or sister when I was younger. Mom and dad wouldn't say why I couldn't have one, which drove me crazy. When I was older, I requested an adopted younger brother. My parents said yes, but died in a car accident on the way to the orphanage. I was sent to the very home they were going to visit."

That was the longest Jaron had over spoken at one time. His eyes were cast down, looking at the floor as he said all this, only looking up occasionally to dodge an urn or crate.

Dantenar had joined us at this point, Zarathel not far behind her. Now her eyes grew large and sympathetic. "You're an orphan, too?" She asked. Jaron nodded, not looking at her. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, most likely wondering when I'd mention our earlier conversation.

I'd decided I'd wait a while. The girls seemed to be adapting to this life well, which was good. I raised my swords as we came into a large room. There were only some Nocturne Fungi and one Naga in there, though, so I let the girls take them on.

Jaron came to stand by me again, but this time he got straight to the point. "When are you going to tell them?" he asked. "You have to, sooner or later. It's not fair to the girls," he added, glancing at the females in question. Zarathel had just finished off the Naga, and was high-fiving Dantenar.

I shrugged. "Soon, I promise. I don't want to upset them, and I'm not sure, exactly."

However, Zara heard this and led Dantenar over. "Upset us? How so?" Her eyes glinted as she looked at me suspiciously. "You're keeping something from us, aren't you?"

A twinge of guilt hit me. "Yes," I admitted, "I am keeping something from you. I didn't want to alarm you two needlessly, because I'm not entirely sure, but since you've brought it up, I may as well tell you." I stopped here.

Dantenar stepped forward, standing next to her twin. It was amazing how much they looked alike, even underneath layers of grime and the difference in their characters features. "Tell us, Kile," She said quietly.

Jaron nodded. "They deserve to know. If you won't tell them, I will." The look in his eyes, the quiet seriousness of his voice convinced me that he would.

"All right, I suppose I have to, now." I took a deep breath, trying to break the news to them gently. "I'm not positive about this, but I think the game zaps you into the game as a test dummy. I'd read something about virtual gaming before I started playing, but I'd ignored it. The article I read said something about some games putting you in your characters shoes, having you fight against the monsters yourselves instead of just moving your character around the screen with a keyboard, or mouse." Again, I paused. "If that's what happened, there's a good chance you won't get out of the game, that we're all stuck here forever."

_A/N: Dun, dun, dun! Now what happens? I'm trying to give the boys a bigger part, so they're going to get little sections in their point of view now, too. Read and review! Also, maybe suggest some ideas for future chapters because I'm out of inspiration._


	8. Aileen the Unremarkable

Chapter Eight

_Zarathel's POV_:

I stared at Kile in shock. "You're kidding, right? Please, tell me you're kidding." I got down on my knees. "Please!" I begged.

Kile looked away. "I wish I could, Zara. But I can't. As I said before, I'm not one hundred percent positive, but that seems to be what happened to me and Jaron." He glanced sideways at the young man standing next to him. "That's the conclusion we've both come to."

Jaron nodded seriously. "So now we have to see if we can find a way to get out of the game. I don't know if it's even possible, or if we really are stuck here for the rest of our lives. If we are, more people will be appearing soon."

We decided to go back to town yet again. We'd taken to doing this fairly often, seeing as our inventories were only so big. I was selling my unneeded equipment to Del Arnes when a female voice spoke up.

"Are you real or are you one of those characters that never says anything?" I turned. A girl was standing slightly behind me. She smiled. "Hi! You must be real, then, none of the other characters ever look at you when you talk to them or even react." She stuck out her hand, which I shook. "I'm Aileen the Unremarkable." It was like fate or something, the way what Jaron said seemed to come true.

Kile came over. "Another one? Poor thing. You can travel with us, if you want," He told Aileen, who shook hands with him and introduced herself.

"Thank you, I will. Though is your monster on level fifty-one? Mine is. Some Taurus with an impossible name."

I put my hand over my mouth at her wording, but nodded in agreement. "All the names are impossible to pronounce. Just ask Dantenar, she can't say hardly any of the names of the monsters we've fought so far."

Aileen looked puzzled. "Dantenar?" Dantenar came over.

"Yes? What did you want-wait. Who are you?" Aileen introduced herself yet again, and shook hands with my twin. "I'm Zarathel's twin," Dantenar added. Aileen nodded.

"Yeah, I noticed. Even though your characters features are completely different, somehow you manage to look alike." She started to talk to Dantenar about the different monsters in the game, what level our monster was on and things like that, and I stood by Kile. I didn't much care for the way she was looking at my brother, like he was some guy to catch or something.

Jaron joined us. "Another one? Kile, this can't keep going on, or we'll have to form two groups. We can't go walking around with twenty people."

Kile nodded. "We'll limit each group to six people that have to be quiet. We'll make sure they're compatible so that they don't fight and make a lot of noise. How's that?"

Aileen looked up at him through her lashes. "I think that's a great idea." I choked, feeling protective. That was weird. Isn't it usually the older brother who feels protective of the little sister?

Dantenar changed the conversation, picking up on Kile's nonverbal cues that he was uncomfortable and needed a subject change. "Okay! So when are we going back down to the Dungeon?"

Aileen held up a hand. "Wait a minute. How long have you been in the game?" We told her the approximate time, which we thought to be about two weeks. Funny how you didn't need sleep in this game. "Really? That's about how long I've been in. Funny how we've never run into each other."

Dantenar nodded her agreement. "It is odd. Now, are we ready to go back down to to the Dungeon? I really want to find out if we're really stuck in here forever."

Aileen looked shocked at this. "Stuck forever? Oh, no, that's terrible! How will I ever see my boyfriend again?" I rolled my eyes. She had a boyfriend, yet flirted with my older brother. Stereotypical teen girl.

Jaron broke in. He'd been silent for some time. "What level are you on?" Aileen told him she was pretty sure that it was level sixteen, which was only three less than Dantenar and I were on. Jaron nodded. "Okay, well, then you can come with us to level thirty-one. We're about to descend."

Aileen nodded eagerly. "Oh, that'd be great. I've been so lonely the entire time. Just let me find my pet, Griffith is always running off. It's like he owns the place!" She found her cat sitting next to Jin the Seer and we linked arms to go through the portal. I noticed that Aileen managed to be right next to Kile, but didn't say anything about it.

We descended to level thirty-one and found yet another group of Cursed Swords waiting for us. This time, we had a member of the group who carried a Crossbow that did damage to cursed things, so we held them back and let Aileen snipe them. She'd killed them all in a matter of minutes, and my health bar had only decreased a little.

Suddenly, the game made a weird noise. The lights fizzled and flickered, flashed once and became normal again. I looked around. That had never happened before. I gulped, wondering if some nasty thing had just appeared. I sure hoped not. I drank a health potion, my health bar being only three-quarters full.

_Dantenar's POV_:

I looked at Kile. "Has that ever happened before, Kile?"

Kile shook his head. "Never. I don't know what happened. Jaron?" Jaron shook his head as well, indicating that it had never happened to him, either. "Maybe a new person just joined or something."

Zarathel came over with Trouble trailing behind her. Fiddlestix jumped at Trouble, and they started wrestling. Juute sat with Griffith in the corner, probably conversing about the oddness of every creature in general except them. "Does anyone know why the game did that?"

Aileen shrugged. "I'm relatively new to this, compared to Kile and Jaron, but it's never done that before."

I was unwilling to give up. There had to be a reason, we just had to find it. I found my answer about ten minute later, when we entered a room filled with Widow Queens and Widowlings. There must've been a million of the baby spiders running around, trying to poison you.

I ended up side-by-side with Jaron, who was showing me the best way to keep the nasty little things at bay. Suddenly, I felt a searing pain in my leg and stabbed the Widowling that had bit my leg, poisoning me. I didn't drink an Antidote because I knew I'd probably just get poisoned again and I didn't have a whole lot of those.

Kile and Zara had teamed up, and Aileen was standing in the corner shooting at the Widow Queens with her Crossbow.

A few minutes later, all the monsters were killed. We had gotten pretty good at working as a team in the seventeen plus levels we'd been working together on. But I had other things to worry about. I had never felt pain in the game before this. Never. I drank and Antidote and rolled down the top of my boot, looking in shock at the two miniature puncture wounds on my ankle.

"Jaron," I whispered to him, as he was closest, "I think I know why the game did what it did. Has that ever happened before?" I indicated the spider bite on my leg.

Jaron looked at it in shock. "That isn't supposed to happen. You don't feel pain in this game. Your health just decreases and when it's gone, you die. The things aren't supposed to hurt you."

Kile came over, Zara and Aileen following behind. "Dantenar, what's wrong?" I pointed to my leg silently. "Oh my gosh. That's not good, Dantenar. The game's become real. That means that my assumption was correct, that we are stuck here forever."

I just about cried. "But are we actually in the game, or are our bodies just sitting at the desk, staring into space blankly? Are we in comas in the real world? What happens when they decide that we're braindead and take us off life-support if we are in comas? Have they already killed you, Kile?"

Jaron put a hand over my mouth. "Shhhh, it's all right. No more questions, let him answer at least one!"

Kile nodded to Jaron, thanking him silently. "I have no idea, perhaps, maybe, I don't know and no clue," he said, answering all my questions in order.

Now I did cry. "I miss Lynna!" I wailed, thinking of my favorite of the littlest girls. "I never even gave her a hug to thank her for getting me a drink of water when I had that flu bug two months ago!" Now that I was positive we were stuck here forever, I was remembering every ungrateful thing I'd ever done and regretting it. "And what about Tyler, I never said I was sorry for accidentally knocking him down!"

Kile hugged me. "It's all right, Dantenar, we'll find a way out of this eventually. There has to be a glitch somewhere, or maybe the game designers have a way to get us out, once they find out we're trapped. There has to be something!"

Aileen was still in shock. "I'm never going to see Seth again," she muttered. Zara put a comforting hand on her arm.

After I got over the initial over-reaction, I had a thought. "Hey, Jaron, is that your real name or one you picked for the game?"

Jaron looked up. "What kind of question is that? But yeah, it's my real name. Did you make yours up?"

I shook my head. "Hippie parents. Gotta love 'em. I always thought it was kinda pretty, but I got teased about it." Jaron helped me up, and all the blood rushed from my head. Now I had to get used to normal sensations again, so I leaned on Kile until the little dots went away from my vision.

Zara had successfully calmed Aileen down, and now we proceeded on to get to level forty-nine, fifty-one and fifty-three, in order. Though what the point of beating the monsters when there was no going home was I had no idea.

_A/N: Okay, sorry for the weird lines, but my computer is doing weird things. Anyway, even though I lost all my inspiration, I managed to squeeze enough ideas out of my family to get another chapter written. So read and review, and pretty please with sugar and a cherry on top give a suggestion. I promise all suggestions will be used unless they're to wild._


	9. This Is Getting Bizarre

Chapter Nine

_A/N: So sorry that it's been so long. I had writers block for forever and then I lost my suggestions and so I finally found them. So here it is._

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than Kile, Dantenar, Zarathel, Jaron and Aileen in this game. The rest belongs to WildTangent or Ford or Chevy.**

_Jaron's POV_:

I walked silently, not bothering to try to speak to any of the others. The twins were involved in a serious conversation about avoiding various monsters, Kile occasionally putting a comment in, and Aileen just sort of walked around in a daze. I felt sorry for her. I'd left a girlfriend behind, too. As I looked at everyone's faces, I realized with shock that as the game became real, their characters features had disappeared, leaving their real faces behind. The twins were practically identical, the only distinguishing feature being a freckle by Dantenar's right eye.

Kile moved over to walk next to me. "We have to find the way out. There has to be a way to leave. Maybe we can communicate with the makers of the game, perhaps they could find a way to get us out of this place." He whirled his swords, stuck a Frost Beetle, and continued. "Don't tell the girls, though. I don't want to get their hopes up."

I nodded. I could understand that. "No point in doing that," I agreed. I turned a corner, stopped short at the sight of a group of Yeti's, but continued on my way after a second. I killed a Yeti, watched Dantenar and Zarathel team up to kill a second, and out of the corner of my eye, saw Kile take on the third. Aileen didn't bother. I was getting tired of her moping around, but didn't want to go tell her to grow up.

I stubbed my toe on a raised tile in the floor and stumbled, biting back a curse as I remembered the females in the group. Suddenly, Trouble ran ahead. Zara followed him, muttering things about stupid dogs and running away. She gasped as she came to a halt out of sight, and Dantenar started forward to see what was wrong. Kile grabbed her arm as Zara screamed with pain, and Dantenar fainted.

Kile picked her up and ran forward, setting her down out of the way, and instructing me to stay by her. He rushed into the room Zara was in, and I peaked around the corner. Zarathel lay in a heap near the door to the room, and I saw a Jackal Fiend Captain grinning devilishly at Kile. Aileen ran in, and without a moments hesitation, shot her crossbow at it, killing it instantly.

I crouched by Dantenar's side, gently shaking her shoulder. "Dantenar. Dantenar, wake up." She shook her head, sitting up, her eyes wide.

"Zarathel! Is she all right? Jaron, is she all right?" Dantenar's voice was low and full of urgency. "Say something!" She grabbed my arm, hauling herself to her feet. "Very well. If you won't answer, I'll go see myself."

She stalked into the room and saw Kile picking Zarathel up, and stopped short. Kile looked at me. "We have to get her to Dreya. Now." I saw a long bloody line across Zara's stomach and fought the urge to gag. "Open the portal."

_Zarathel's POV_:

_**Terrible pain.**_ I fought my way through the darkness, trying to return to consciousness. _**Agony.**_ What was wrong with me? What hurt so badly?

_Kile's POV_:

Jaron used a Town Portal scroll to get us back to The Town of Grove. I rushed Zara to Dreya immediately. She was in her usual spot, but frowned as I drew nearer. "What is wrong with her?" I was surprised to hear her address me, since usually all she said was "I am a healer by trade. Will you allow me to soothe your wounds?" but I laid Zara by Dreya's feet.

"A stomach wound. A Jackal Fiend got her across her front. Can you help her?" Dreya nodded and knelt by my sister. Her hands flew across Zarathel's armor, taking it off, and then her vest, unbuttoning it and taking it off as well. When all Zara wore was her shirt between Dreya and my sister's skin, Dreya laid a hand on the wound, muttering and closing her eyes. A second later, she opened them again.

"Done. I think she'll be all right now, but don't push it. It'd be better if she stays up here for a while." I nodded, deciding that it would do us all good to rest and heal. Dreya smiled and got up. "Wow. It's nice to actually be able to talk to you people. I haven't had a decent conversation in ages." This was getting bizarre.

Dantenar came over, her face drawn and scared. "Will Zara live?"

Dreya looked confused. "Zara?" Dantenar hastily explained who Zara was, who she was and who everyone else was. Dreya shook the offered hand and grinned. "So how did you all manage to get into the same game? Usually it's one at a time. I thought it was odd when the two boys were in the same game, but now there's five of you! This is not usually the case. Though there was that one time when those two brothers came in..." her voice trailed off. "Never mind. Is there anyone else in need in medicine? I'd be happy to assist."

Jaron walked up, declined the offer, saying that he was feeling fine, and looked down at Zara, who was still unconscious. "Is she all right?" Dreya nodded. "When will she wake up?"

_Zarathel's POV_:

The pain and agony had died away, a coolness soothing the fiery feeling. I struggled to rise into consciousness, but something held me back. I fought it, and finally succeeded in getting away from it. I opened my eyes to see five pairs of eyes staring down at me in worry. Dantenar, Jaron, Kile, Aileen and Dreya all looked relieved. "Are you all right?" Aileen asked. "You've been out for a while."

I sat up, feeling lighter, and saw that I wasn't wearing any armor, just a shirt. I felt around and pulled my armor back on. "I'm fine. What happened?" Four voices tried to explain at once, but they all died out as Kile held up his hand.

"Zarathel, that Jackal Fiend Captain got you across the stomach," Kile said, tracing a line across my armor. True to his word, there was a long line cut into the armor. "Since it's not just a game now, it actually cut you. We got you to town as fast as we could and we nearly lost you on the way here. Be thankful that Dreya is such a good healer or you wouldn't be here right now."

His words slowly sank in to my still-confused brain. "You mean I nearly died? Yikes. That's a scary thought." Dantenar crouched down beside me and suggested that we go to Del Arnes to get my armor fixed. I agreed at once and I had Dantenar help me up. Staggering over to Del Arnes, the arms and armor merchant, I cleared my throat. Del looked up from his work.

"Yes? Oh, hello." When he saw my armor, he practically dropped the sword he was making. "My armor? Sliced open? How did that happen?" I explained. "Well, let's get that sealed up for ya," he said, and speedily mended the line. "That should do ya," he promised, and sent me on my way. I shrugged and sat by the fountain, touching the water hesitantly. It was cold and clear.

Suddenly it struck me that my hygiene was sadly lacking. I washed my face as best I could with no washcloth or soap, then made Dantenar wash hers. When she saw how dirty she was, though, she was all to happy to scrub the grime off. We grinned at each other, now clean, and went back to the others.

Dantenar had pulled off her helmet and stuck her whole head in the fountain, causing her hair to become soaking wet, so she'd taken off her mail shirt as well. Her hair hung straight down her back, nearly touching her leather skirt, and dripped onto the ground, leaving a little trail of droplets that anyone could track us by. Good thing there were no monsters in Grove.

When we reached the others, Kile had cleaned up and we could clearly see his features. He looked just like I remembered my father looking like. Sparkling brown eyes with black hair and a broad smile. Aileen had obviously kept herself clean, so she looked the same.

Jaron had also cleaned up, and looked much different without the layers of dirt on his face. He'd taken off his helmet, probably because his hair was wet and he didn't want to have his helmet rust, and although it was darkened by water, it looked like it would be a reddish-brown color when it dried. He smiled at us as we sat by them in the grass near the dock.

Dantenar dangled her legs over the edge and fished, for real fish this time. The little floating words had disappeared, so we had no idea what fish was what. I wondered what it would be like once we went back down into the Dungeon and had to deal with Mimics again.

_A/N: A Mimic looks just like a Large Chest, only it says Mimic above it. Without the words, you really couldn't tell which was which._

I pulled up a handful of grass and braided three stalks together, listening to Kile and Jaron talking about something that I didn't understand. It had to do with car engines and types, and what kind of engine was best, and that sort of thing. It had never really interested me all that much. It was interesting to listen to, however, because the boys' opinions differed greatly. Kile said this kind of engine was best, and Jaron said another kind was best, and then they got to arguing about whether Ford or Chevy was better.

Juute crawled into my lap, and I petted him absentmindedly, enjoying the sound of his purring. He glared at me reproachfully as I stopped, my hand freezing in the air as Kile and Jaron glared at each other. "Umm," I said timidly. I didn't want them to attack one another, but then again I didn't want them to attack me, either. "What are you fighting about?"

Jaron looked at me. "You know, I don't remember."

Kile frowned, his face thoughtful. "You know, me neither." And with that, both of them started laughing. Dantenar looked over, reeled in a fish and threw it back. Then her fishing pole disappeared and her spears appeared in its place. She stood and joined us, sinking to the ground between Aileen and Kile. She rested her head on our brother's shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her waist. He sighed fondly. Jaron looked a little jealous. I didn't feel comfortable doing that to him, though, so I just moved closer to him and deposited his cat into his lap. Juute immediately curled up and began purring again.

"You know," Jaron said, not looking at anyone, "This life really isn't so bad, as long as you don't spend all your time in the Dungeon. Now that the other characters can talk and move around, too, it's actually pretty interesting."

Aileen looked at him suspiciously, as if she knew what he was getting at, but me, I didn't have a clue. Kile looked up from talking with Dantenar, and my twin glanced at him, too. "What are you getting at, Jaron?" She asked. Her eyebrow was raised, her face confused. I'd never been able to quirk my eyebrow.

Jaron looked at Kile, then Aileen, then Dantenar, and finally me. "Maybe we should stay."

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_A/N: What will happen now? (No, really, I need suggestions. One isn't enough to do me.) If I don't get reviews and suggestions, this FanFic is not going to make it much longer. It's already on its final chapters. I'm thinking twelve or thirteen is a good number. So suggest away and I promise I'll use any suggestions I get in a future chapter._


	10. A Maker is Found

Chapter Ten

_Dantenar's POV:_

My mouth fell open at Jaron's words, and he hastily added, "It's just a thought." He looked down at Juute again, wincing as the cat dug his claws into his legs. "Ow."

Kile tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Well, it's not a bad idea, seeing as we have no clue how to get out. Still, I'm going to see if we can communicate to the makers of the game, somehow, before I resign myself to my Fate."

Zarathel was still to shocked to say anything, but Aileen perked up as Kile spoke. "Does that mean that there's still a slight possibility that we can get out?" Kile nodded, opened his mouth to speak, but Aileen rushed on. "So there's hope that I can see Seth again? Great! How do we communicate, a séance or something?"

Kile looked disturbed at that, and held up a hand to stop Aileen from going further. "The odds of being able to communicate with The Makers is slim, so don't get your hopes up. And no séances." At this last part, he looked meaningfully at Aileen, who blushed.

Jaron, who had started this conversation, had oddly enough not said anything after his initial sentences. I glanced at him, but he was preoccupied with petting Juute. He looked up as Kile added, "I think we should go back to the Dungeon."

Zarathel went a little pale at that, and put a hand to her middle. "Not a good idea, Kile, remember what Dreya said!"

I backed up my sister. "Zara's still healing, so if you want to go, you can. I'm staying in Grove, with her." Kile looked uncertainly at me, and I went on. "I'm sick of the Dungeon anyway. There's a better chance of surviving long enough to meet The Makers up here then down there."

Jaron quietly agreed, still stroking his cat. "Dantenar's right, Zarathel is still not strong enough to go back down, and we'll have a better shot at communicating with The Makers in Grove. If they join the game, won't they appear up here, first?"

Kile nodded. "You've convinced me. We'll stay up here until Zara's all the way recovered, then we'll try to find the way out. Does this sound okay to everyone?" We all nodded, more or less in unison. "Good. Now, I have got to find Kaos. Has anyone seen him?"

Aileen pointed to a spot about twenty feet away where Trouble and Kaos were wrestling. In a patch of sunlight a few feet farther from that, Fiddlestix watched sleepily, curled up in a little ball. She looked at me, and seemed to be smiling, although dogs can't smile very well. I realized that she hadn't spoken in a long time, and came to the conclusion that probably when the game became real, she'd lost the ability to talk.

The others began to talk about something that I really couldn't care less about, so I went back to the dock and sat down, casting my line and preparing myself for another long wait until I got a bite. Fiddlestix came and sat beside me, curling up again and falling asleep almost immediately. I smiled and patted her absentmindedly.

Finally, I felt the line tug, and tugged back, hooking the fish. I was slow in reeling it in, though, and it escaped. I sighed. "Darn." I put the fishing pole on the dock beside me, fell back on the sun-warmed wood, and closed my eyes. I couldn't fall asleep, so I just lifted my face to the sun and listened to the others talking about whatever it was they were talking about.

I heard someone walking on the deck, coming towards me, and then sitting down. I opened one eye. "Oh, hey, Jaron. Conversation get too dull?"

Jaron smiled. "I never understood football, anyway. So I thought I'd come join you. Mind if I use your fishing pole?" I shook my head. We both fell silent, and I started drifting off at last.

_Jaron's POV:_

I cast the line of Dantenar's pole into the water and glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. Her breathing had become slow and deep, so I assumed she was asleep. Fiddlestix was curled up next to her, although I couldn't imagine how uncomfortable and cold armor would be to lie next to. Maybe she didn't mind because she had fur.

I got a bite and reeled it in, letting Juute eat it. He'd joined me on the dock, and after he'd finished the fish, he cleaned himself almost daintily. I rumpled his ears. Juute purred, sounding like a mini-jackhammer. I stroked his back fondly, and he curled up next to Fiddlestix to sleep. "Lazybones," I whispered. "All three of you."

I heard a soft step on the dock, and turned to see Zarathel. "Hi. Get sick of football, to?" Zara nodded, and sank down beside her sister. She twisted her fingers in Dantenar's long, dark hair.

"I wish I had a brush. Her hair is so fun to play with," Zara said wistfully. "I miss showers and brushes and washing machines. And regular food, instead of this 'health potion' stuff. I mean, it used to heal us, right? Now it just sort of...fills you up, like food, and it tastes like whatever you're in the mood for at the moment. It doesn't heal you anymore."

I raised my eyebrow. "And you know this...how?"

Zarathel made a face. "I was trying to heal more quickly, and when I drank it, it tasted like apple juice. I always have a craving for apple juice." Dantenar made a noise in her sleep and turned over. Zara spoke in a whisper. "We have got to get out of here."

I nodded. "I agree. But how? We don't know how to get out." Zara shrugged, looking dejected. I reeled in the line and set it on the dock next to me. "There has to be a way, we just have to find it."

"Like that'll happen any time soon," Zara snorted. "Look. I'm wounded, we're all exhausted, I'm tired of the Dungeon and nearly getting killed. Dantenar was never very violent anyway, and this isn't getting any easier as we descend. What happens if one of us actually dies? Do we die in real life? Are our bodies still sitting at the computer or did we disappear? All these questions and no answers!" Zara smacked the dock in frustration.

The sound woke Dantenar, who sat up sleepily. "Wha's going on here?" She said, yawning. "Why's Zara all upset?" She stretched leisurely as I explained. "Don't worry, Zara," she said, turning to her sister. "We'll find the way out. I'm sure of it." She looked at me. "Right?"

I nodded, letting a small smile show. "Right." Juute climbed into my lap again, and Fiddlestix came and laid her head on my knee, falling asleep almost immediately.

"Oh, Fiddlestix," Dantenar said fondly. The dog opened one eye, as if to say, "What?" Dantenar shook her head. "You're so lazy. Normally she doesn't like men," Dantenar added to me. "You're the first. You and Kile. It's sort of strange." She smiled.

Speaking of Kile, I heard him stand and start towards us. _He must be sick of football as well_, I thought. I stroked Juute's back. Glancing at Dantenar, I saw she was cuddling with Fiddlestix, who'd gone over to her mistress. She laughed as Fiddlestix licked her chin, and I realized that she was really pretty when she smiled. Both of them (Dantenar and Zarathel) were.

_Kile's POV_

I stood, sick of hearing Aileen gush about Seth to Dreya, who'd joined us. I walked towards Jaron, Dantenar and Zarathel and saw that they were talking quietly. Dantenar jumped when I sat down next to her, but put her head on my shoulder. I touched her hair and wrapped some around my fingers.

"We were trying to think up ways of getting out of the game," Jaron clarified for me. "Have any ideas?" I shook my head. "Bummer. I'm tired of being here, stuck in this game. I was in college when I started this game, and I was only a year or two away from graduating."

Zarathel sat beside Dantenar, playing with her hair. She braided a couple strands of hair together, then groped around for something to use as a hair-tie. Finally, she used a strand of cloth from her sleeve. She kept going, braiding more hair together. After five small braids, she ran out of the cloth she'd been using and stopped. Dantenar had fallen asleep again.

"Zara, does Dantenar have something wrong with her?" I asked. "She seems to be sleeping an awful lot." I pulled my fingers out of her hair to touch her neck.

Zarathel looked away. "Well, she has a disease. Her ankles are weak besides that, so walking long distances makes her tired. The disease keeps her from playing sports. They aren't sure exactly what it is. Our doctor has never seen it before."

Dantenar opened her eyes. "I'm just fine. Just a little tired. And my head hurts. The Dungeon is to dim for my taste, to hard to see in. It needs more light." She sat up. "Zara's the one with-"

Zara cut her off abruptly. "We could make torches to make it more light," she said quickly. Dantenar relaxed against me again. "I don't know where we'd get the wood and fire and such, but I'm sure we could find it somewhere."

Jaron smiled. "Del Arnes has fire. He probably wouldn't mind if we borrowed some. But you really should recover the rest of the way first, Zara." Juute raised his head and made a plaintive noise and Jaron started petting him again. The cat purred loudly. I'd always liked the way cats sounded.

With a yawn, Dantenar dropped back off to sleep. Fiddlestix curled up in her lap and completed the picture of relaxation. Jaron re-directed his smile at Dantenar, who had sighed.

_Zarathel's POV:_

I hid a grin behind my hand as Jaron looked at Dantenar. He liked her, it was so obvious. And why shouldn't he? She was the prettier of us two. Even though we were identical. I laughed at that. Kile looked at me inquisitively, and I shook my head at him. "Nothing."

Kile smiled and rolled his eyes. He stroked Kaos, who had joined him. Aileen and Dreya joined us, and the dock was full. Kile turned to Dreya. "Do you know how to get out of the game? And are you a real person, or what?"

Dreya shrugged. "I don't know if I'm real anymore. I used to be, I suppose. A long time ago, when the game was first made."

"What do you mean?" Aileen asked. She looked curious. "Are you trapped in here to?"

Dreya looked down at her hands. "I'm one on the Makers."

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A/N: Ooh, what now? Sorry that it's been so long, but school got me really busy and with Christmas coming up, my family's in a flurry of preparations and not to mention the fact that my room is a total disaster. Thanks to almostinsane and Measha of Clomati () for the reviews/suggestions!


	11. Surprise!

Chapter Eleven

_Zarathel's POV(still):_

For the second time in an hour, my mouth fell open. "A Maker?" Dreya nodded sadly. "Why didn't you tell us before?" I felt a little put out that she hadn't.

Dreya glanced up. "I wasn't sure how you'd react, and if you'd be mad or not. It was never our intent to trap people in the game, honest. We made it to be a new type, virtual gaming. It was only supposed to look more real. But something happened, a glitch. The monsters became real, and when you played, you were stuck. We're not sure exactly what went wrong. I think that one of the monsters, Kuhz'rod the Emperor Abomination, did something. He has magical capabilities. Most of the monsters do. He's in every single game. He changes his form and his name, but he's the same monster. Since you're all on the same game, he'll probably be one monster but appear differently to each of you."

Dantenar seemed stunned by this. Finally, she managed, "What was your real name?"

Dreya shrugged. "I think it was Madalyn. It's been so long that I've forgotten."

Dantenar buried her face in Kile's shoulder, and Aileen patted her shoulder comfortingly. Kile looked at Dreya and seemed sad. "You've been trapped here even longer than me. And you didn't even have anyone to talk to, you were a computer controlled character. I feel sorry for you. Do you know what happened to our bodies? Are we still sitting at our computers?"

Dreya frowned. "I don't know. Probably not anymore, since the game became real to you and all that, but you might've been. I don't even know what happened to me."

Jaron, who hadn't said anything or even looked surprised at Dreya's statement, was still petting Juute. I folded my arms. "Jaron." He looked up. "What's with you?"

He kept petting Juute, who was now stretching leisurely. "I had my suspicions, and they've just been confirmed. That's all."

Dantenar sat straight. "Why didn't you say anything?" She looked vaguely insulted.

Jaron smiled slightly. "I wasn't sure. It's not you or anyone else," he said quietly. Dantenar just humphed. I hid a grin behind my hand. Not only was it obvious that Jaron liked Dantenar, but it was obvious that she liked him. Although how they managed not to notice was beyond me.

Kile, who was looking over Dantenar's head at me, looked at Jaron, then Dantenar, then looked at me and raised his eyebrow. I nodded slightly. He grinned. _I knew it_, he mouthed. Dreya was watching the whole thing with interest. Kile looked at her and frowned suddenly. "You say you helped design the game?" Dreya nodded, obviously confused. "How old are you?"

Dreya laughed. "At the time, I was twenty-three. Now, I'm probably closer to thirty, if you age in the game. If not, I'm still the same age, I think."

Dantenar's face got sympathetic. "You've been in the game for the past seven years?"

Dreya nodded. "Yes, I have. There were four of us Makers, and when the game was finally finished, we decided to test it out. Kuhz'rod the Emperor Abomination, though, had become real somehow, I'm still not sure how, and he trapped us in here and bound us to certain phrases and actions. Whenever someone knew came in, I wanted to warn them so badly, but I couldn't. The game wouldn't let me. Then, multiple people started entering the same game. I'd never heard of five people in the game at once, never seen it, so it surprised me. I thought that probably Kuhz'rod was trying to gain more power, and the only way he can do that is by...killing the Gamers.

"Gamers," Dreya went on, "are what we Makers called the people who played the game. Besides me, there's Zim, Torvus and Bartleby. We've been trying to figure out how to leave the game for years. Even though we couldn't talk to Gamers, we could talk to other Makers. I think that if you manage to best Kuhz'rod, then the game will let you, I mean us, leave. But so far, he's killed everyone who's managed to get down that far. This is the first time the game's become real. Usually it's only on level fifty-three."

I sat back. "So if we defeat the Emperor Abomination, then we get to leave, right?" Dreya nodded. "So what happens when we get back to the real world? Will we remember anything, or ever meet the other Gamers again? Will Dantenar and I lose Kile again?"

Dreya shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, I don't know."

Jaron had looked up when I'd spoken, and now he finally had a question. "What will happen to us if our bodies have been in comas and they finally just took us off life-support? Do we still get to come back or are we stuck here forever?"

Dreya shrugged. "I don't know the answer to that, either. I really am sorry."

Kile shrugged. "It doesn't really matter. This life really isn't so bad, as long as you don't die."

Dreya laughed. "Yes, that would be a problem."

"Making some new friends, Dreya?" A new voice asked. It was Zim, the Gambler. He sold weapons and armor that were magical, but you couldn't be sure what exactly the magical abilities were until you bought them. Hence the name Gambler, because you had to gamble when you bought stuff from him. "It's nice not to be stuck with a few phrases anymore. I was sick of standing in one place, and no one ever visited me except for that one kid that one time. He seemed nice. To bad Kuhz'rod got him."

Dreya and Zim both looked grieved at that. "Maybe we should try to brainstorm some ideas," Dreya said after a few seconds of silence. "Now that we're not bound anymore, we can give them some hints, even if we aren't allowed in the Dungeon. Game rules, you know," she added to us Gamers.

"Good idea." Zim looked at Kile. "You seem to be the leader. Now, just so you know, Kuhz'rod has one weakness: his pride. If you flatter him, he might let his guard down a little. Oh, and there is that one spot above his right eye where his armor is not as strong. If Aileen can manage to hit it with her crossbow, that should weaken him sufficiently so that you can finish him off."

Aileen, who had followed Zim over, looked indignant. "I can hit it, don't worry about that."

Suddenly, Dreya's face got very white. "Wait a minute. How many times did you level up before the game became real to you?"

Dantenar frowned. "Fourteen, I think. I'm really not sure, I didn't keep track."

Aileen nodded. "I think I leveled up about that many times as well."

Kile grinned. "I leveled up a whole lot more than that. I'm not sure exactly how many, but a whole lot. More than a hundred." Dreya looked impressed. "Yeah, six years trapped in a game lets you level up a whole bunch." He wrapped his arm around Dantenar, who had put her head back on his shoulder.

_Dantenar's POV:_

I still felt sorry for Kile. All by himself for six years! I would've gone crazy. Dreya was also looking sympathetic again. She really was pretty. Although that blue and white dress looked kind of silly, but she couldn't help what she was wearing in the game. She had golden brown hair and brown eyes and a soft, gentle voice. Just like I'd always imagined a healer sounding.

My hair was finally dry, probably because of the basking I'd done in the sun for the past few hours. It felt good to rest up. Suddenly, I felt Kile move. I looked up at him. He was frowning. "Dantenar, what does Zara have?"

Zara looked at me quickly, her eyes a little wary. I raised my eyebrow. Zara nodded grudgingly. I turned back to Kile. "She has Hemophilia. I don't know why I didn't get it, but Zara did. That's why I was so worried about her when that Jackal Fiend Captain slashed her. I wasn't all that worried about the wound, I was more worried about her bleeding to death before we could get her to Dreya."

Dreya sat back on her heels. "I thought so. I noticed that her blood hadn't started to clot at all. Usually it will have some scabbing around the edges but it didn't in Zara's case. But don't worry, I healed her completely. No more Hemophilia. Promise."

My twin's face cleared so fast it made my head spin. She positively beamed at everyone. "I don't have to worry about bleeding to death anymore!" She laughed. Dreya smiled. Looking up at the sky, I noticed that the sun was nearly down. That surprised me. The day had gone faster than I'd thought.

Kile was noticing this as well. "Well, everyone," he said, standing. "we'd better get to bed. We have a long day ahead of us." Jaron stood, then offered his hand to Zarathel, who was sitting near him. She accepted, smiling, and let Jaron pull her to her feet.

"We have to find a place to camp. And we still need fire. Maybe we can borrow some of Dell Arnes'?" Zara stumbled while saying this, and Jaron and Kile both reached for her arms at the same time. She swatted at their hands, and went over to Dell Arnes, said something, then nodded and accepted a torch that Dell handed her. She brought it back triumphantly. "There. Fire."

Dell followed her over. "Wow, it's been a long time since I had somebody to talk to! How are you, Dreya?" By this time, Zim had gone back over to his post to talk to Rollo the Minstrel, and now Gimbo Tel was starting to amble his way over.

Dreya grinned at Dell. "Just fine, thanks. Much better now that I'm able to talk and not just repeat programmed phrases. Do you know how sick I got of saying "Hello!"?" She rolled her eyes. Kile smiled into his hand. I got the distinct impression that he didn't want to offend her.

Gimbo Tel arrived and talked in a surprisingly clear voice, considering he usually just said something along the lines of "bleah" whenever you talked to him during the game. "Dell, Dreya. These must be the most recent batch, eh?" The other two nodded. Gimbo turned and offered me his hand. "Nice to meet you."

I shook his hand. His grip was firm and not at all gross, even though he was a Shambling Dead. "Nice to meet you, too, sir."

Gimbo laughed. "Oh, just call me Gimbo. Or Mr. Tel, although that sounds terribly stuffy. I hate sir." He made a face. "My kids used to call me sir."

Zara looked shocked. "You have kids?"

Gimbo nodded sadly. "Yes, at least I did. As best I can remember, my name was Ross and I had a wife named Iris, and three kids named Kile, Zarathel and Dantenar. Funny, you and your sister look just like I remember them."

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_A/N: Wow! So that's where they're dad disappeared to! Sorry if this chapter is a little weird, but I had sudden inspiration and used it. But now you people come in! How will Kile, Dantenar and Zara react to this news? And what happened to Iris?_

_Oh, and I figured out that I've been spelling Dell Arnes' name wrong. Two 'L's, not one. Sorry._


	12. Back Into the Dungeon

Chapter Twelve

_Dantenar's POV(still):_

My jaw dropped.

Zarathel's jaw dropped.

Kile's jaw dropped.

Jaron and Aileen just looked surprised, while Dreya looked at all of us smugly. Gimbo looked confused. "What?"

I recovered first. "It's just that..." Then I had a better idea. "Let me introduce myself. My name is...I mean, his name is...her name is...Ugh, this is complicated. Okay, here goes. I'm Dantenar, this is Zarathel, my twin sister and Kile, our older brother."

Now Gimbo looked shocked as well. "Kile?" He peered at his son, then at me and Zara. "Dantenar? Zara?" Then, to my surprise, I noticed tears in his eyes. "My kids..." He whispered, and laughed. "They're my kids!" He said to Dreya, who smiled and nodded knowingly. I wondered just how much she **did** know.

Kile broke out of his shock, shaking his head, but before he could do anything, Zara had rushed into Gimbo's arms and was hugging him tightly. I joined her, and Kile hesitantly finished off the group hug. Our father hugged us back, and I noticed Aileen and Jaron looking at each other with sappy "_aww, isn't that sweet?_" looks on their faces.

Then I had a thought. "Hey, umm, Dad..." I said slowly, not sure about what to call him. My Dad smiled and nodded. "Dad, why are you still in your computer animated form? Ours sort of fell off when the game became real."

Dad shrugged. "I dunno. Rikko the Enchanter still looks like a penguin and those broccoli things still look like broccoli. Maybe because our forms weren't human."

Suddenly, a smooth female voice spoke. "Well, this reunion is a nice sight after years and years of standing in one spot by that fountain." Jin the Seer stepped into the circle of campfire light, as the sun was gone. Or whatever it was that lighted the 'game.' "Ten years of standing in one place. It gets boring after a while."

Zara's jaw dropped again. "This game has been around for ten years? So that's where Dad went! We never found out what happened to you. Remember our conversation, Dantenar?" She turned to me. "Well, we just found out."

I nodded. Dad smiled. "I'm glad you were taken care of. After your mother died..." Here he almost lost control but kept going. "After your mother died, I arranged for the orphanage to take care of you should anything happen to me."

Zarathel looked horrified at the thought. "We just got you back, we're not going to lose you again," she said firmly.

Gimbo, I mean Dad, patted her shoulder. "I don't want to lose you, either." Zarathel, with a look of bliss, hugged our father again. I grinned at the expression on her face.

Jin was smiling, and now I turned to her. "Do you know why Dad's still in his computer generated form? Cause you aren't, obviously, and Dreya isn't anymore. And neither is Dell Arnes. Kindly explain, if you can."

Jin looked surprised. "I can try. Your father and the broccolis are not human. Well, I mean, they are, but not in the game. Plus, Yahz'rod is still in control of the game. He's probably holding them in their forms."

I folded my arms. "Why them and not us too?"

Jin shrugged. "I'm sorry, Dantenar, I don't know. I really don't know." I sighed, feeling my shoulders sag. "For what it's worth, I think you five are doing an excellent job. Most of the characters didn't last this long, they were killed before defeating Yahz'rod." I smiled slightly.

"Thanks. Oh, and if you aren't a Maker, why are you in the game?" I had recalled the list of Makers Dreya had given us, and Jin wasn't on it.

"I was a test subject. They needed someone to test it, and since I was Madalyn, I mean Dreya's, older sister, I was the best choice." Jin said vaguely. Dreya nodded sadly. "Don't worry, Dreya, it's not your fault that Yahz'rod became to powerful."

I sat down again, sitting close to the fire Zara had brought. Her and Dad were already sitting close together, and Zara had her head on his shoulder, like I usually did with Kile. I smiled at the picture they made, father and daughter snuggling. It was nice to have a father again. If we ever got out of this confounded game, I hoped that Dad came to and that we could go back to living with him.

My concentration was broken by Jaron sitting down next to me. I glanced at him, then went back to staring at the flames of the fire. "I'm glad you found your father," Jaron remarked.

I smiled. "Thanks." Aileen was talking with Dreya again, probably about Seth. Was I sick of hearing about her perfect boyfriend! I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and looked up as Zara laughed. Then I heard Jin, who was talking to Kile, mention something about going back to the Dungeon. Zara looked up and glanced at me with apprehensive eyes. It was obvious she wasn't for going back into that dark place, especially not after she almost died.

"We should probably start getting ready," Kile was saying. "The Dungeon is dangerous."

"We have already talked about this," Zara said darkly. "I'm not going back down until Dreya says I can. I don't even want to go back down, to be perfectly honest, but I guess I must if I want to leave." Jaron looked up at these words, then glanced at me and smiled, going back to paying attention to Juute. Fiddlestix crawled into my lap and curled up in a tiny ball. I smiled at her and stroked her back absently.

_Kile's POV:_

Zara looked at me with challenge in her dark eyes. I bowed my head, submitting before things could get out of hand. I knew when I was out-willed. "I know you don't. I was mostly talking about the ones who aren't injured, Zara. I'm sorry I wasn't more specific."

Dad's eyes shone with approval at my move, and I felt vaguely satisfied with myself. A father's approval is a nice thing to have.

Suddenly, Zara put her hand over her mouth. I followed her gaze to where Dantenar and Jaron were sitting by the fire. Dantenar was cuddling with Fiddlestix, who was asleep, and didn't notice Jaron glancing at her from time to time. Zara sat down next to me, tugging on my pants leg to make me sit down as well. "They'd be so cute together, don't you think?" She asked me in a whisper.

I grinned and nodded. "Too bad neither realizes that they like each other." Dantenar stood abruptly after gently depositing Fiddlestix on the ground near the fire and walked off in the direction of the Dungeon gate. I got up and followed. "Dantenar?" I called, trying to see her in the now-dark town.

"Yeah, Kile?" I saw her vague outline crouching over something near a tree. She lifted something and pulled out a long, stick-like thing. Her poleaxe.

"How did you know which chest was yours?"

Dantenar, who was now walking back towards me, shrugged. "I just guessed. Plus, I couldn't open the other four." I looked at my little sister. She looked ready for battle, holding the poleaxe like a walking staff in both hands. Relaxed and warlike at the same time.

We walked back to the fire together. Dantenar returned to her seat by the fire, laying her poleaxe on the ground next to her and picking Fiddlestix, who wagged her little tale sleepily, up and holding her on her lap. Jaron was staring at her again, but she didn't notice. Again. I smiled and shook my head.

Jin cleared her throat. "You should all go to bed now, you have a big day tomorrow." I looked up in shock. "I'm a Seer, remember? I have Seen that you are returning to the Dungeon. Zara is healed enough to go back down."

Zara looked up at this and choked. "What?" She squeaked. "Says who?"

"Dreya, of course. She's the healer."

Zarathel looked like she was going to start sobbing at any minute, but pulled herself together. "Whatever you say, Jin." I admired her self control. Going back down to the Dungeon wasn't going to be easy for her, since she'd nearly gotten killed last time.

We all curled up around the fire and went to sleep.

_I was walking along in the Dungeon, when suddenly I heard a noise. I looked around. "Kile," the voice taunted. I held my sword at the ready. "Kile." A shadow moved in the corner, and I started walking slowly towards it._

_"Who are you?" I called out, trying to distract it from noticing my movement._

_"Kile," the voice said again. The owner stepped forward. I still couldn't see it's face, but I saw glowing red orbs for eyes. "I'm your worst nightmare." The person raised it's face and stepped into a shaft of light. I gasped and stepped backwards involuntarily. The voice belonged to Dantenar._

I woke up covered in sweat and gasping. I looked around, propping myself up on one elbow, and made sure that everyone was still there. My gaze fell on Dantenar, who was sleeping near Fiddlestix. The dog had curled up against Dantenar's stomach, and the girl had curved around the dog protectively.

I started breathing deeply to calm myself down. "It was just a dream," I told myself. "Just a dream." Laying back down, I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

_I was back in the Dungeon. I groaned and tried to wake myself up, but to no avail. "What's wrong, Kile?" The same voice said tauntingly. "Scared?"_

_"I'm not scared of you, Dantenar." I said firmly, but in reality I was scared about what was going to happen. I didn't want to have to kill my own sister._

_"Who said I was Dantenar?" The voice said and the person stepped out. Zarathel looked at me, her eyes glowing red in the dim light. I screamed. Not her, too!_

I woke to someone shaking me. "Kile, wake up. It was just a dream, man, get a hold of yourself!" I opened my eyes to see Jaron crouched down over me. "You're gonna wake the girls. What happened?" I took a deep breath and explained in a slightly shaky voice. "Aw, don't worry, Kile, the girls would never turn like that. They're both too strong."

_Jaron's POV:_

Kile was breathing hard, and a thin coating of sweat shone on his forehead. "I know, but it seemed so real!" I turned slightly to glance at the twins, who were now back to back, sleeping soundly. I smiled faintly.

"If you want, I'll keep an eye on them, just in case."

Kile shook his head. "No, that's not necessary and it'll only make them nervous. It was just a dream, I don't think that would actually happen." He dropped his head back down against the dirt. "I'm going back to sleep."

I moved away and stared at the fire, thinking. The girls wouldn't do something like that, would they? I glanced at Dantenar, I couldn't imagine her with red eyes. Only the dark chocolate brown ones that she had now. I couldn't believe that either her or Zarathel could be convinced to join Yahz'rod. For some reason it just didn't seem possible. Maybe if they were under mind control or something, but they wouldn't go against their brother and father, right? I sighed. I was to tired to think straight. I went back to sleep.

The next morning, Kile seemed to have forgotten about the dreams. Or maybe he was just good at hiding it. Either way, he wasn't going to let the twins know. He'd told me the night before.

Aileen was sitting by the fire, staring into the flames moodily. "I'm starving," she remarked. "Is there any food in Grove?"

I shrugged. "Beats me. You should ask Dreya, or Gimbo or Dell or something. They'd know." I turned to wake up the twins, but they were already sitting up and rubbing at their eyes sleepily. Dantenar smiled at me, still bleary-eyed, and Zarathel groaned.

"Is it morning already?"

I nodded. "'Fraid so." Zara made a face and flopped back down on the ground. "Come on, up and at 'em!" Dantenar shook her head at me, then bent down to help her twin up. Zara let herself be pulled to her feet, then went to the fountain to wash up for breakfast, if there was any.

"Hey!" Kile shouted. "We can cook fish for breakfast, the lake's full of them!"

Dantenar looked shocked. "But won't they turn us into some type of monster?"

Kile snorted. "Not if we cook them first, they won't. A properly cooked fish will lose its magic powers. Probably. Most likely. I think." Dantenar rolled her eyes, but grabbed her fishing pole and joined Kile on the dock.

Before long, we had fourteen fish and were in the process of frying them for breakfast. Well, more like putting them on spikes and holding them above a fire, trying to cook them. Kile held up a thoroughly cooked, though very burned, fish and looked at it skeptically.

"Did you take the guts out?" Aileen asked suspiciously as Kile handed it to her. "Because I'm not eating it if it still has the guts inside."

Kile slapped his forehead. "I knew I was forgetting something!"

Zarathel looked up from her position of cooking another fish. "It's a good thing I remembered to gut it then, isn't it, Kile?" She rolled her eyes and handed the fish to Dantenar, who was sitting next to her, trying not to laugh. I bit my lip to keep from smiling. Good old sibling banter.

After breakfast, Kile broke the news. "We're going back into the Dungeon. Grab your gear, guys, we're heading out."

Dantenar and Zarathel, glancing at each other, simultaneously reached for their weapons. Dantenar had strapped her spears to her back with one of the belts in her Storage Chest, and now she looked positively warlike. I half-expected her to put face paint on and start dancing around the fire singing a war song.

Zarathel had stuck a sword through her belt, had her Cludrip hanging from it and was holding her Fist Mace and Feathered Sceptor in her hands. "Let's go, I'm ready." Both the twins looked fierce and ready for anything.

Aileen had her crossbow slung cross her back on its strap, and we all linked arms to go through the portal. There was a rushing sensation, then we arrived on level thirty-five. Rushing through the levels at breakneck speed, we descended quickly, fighting when we had to but mostly just avoiding the monsters.

At level forty-nine, we stopped. We were in a room, safe from the various monsters, and were taking a break. I had a stitch in my side, and was trying to catch my breath. The door opened and Dantenar sank her poleaxe deep into the Naga's chest, killing it immediately. Strangely enough, it disappeared into a cloud of sparkles.

"A magic Naga," Kile remarked. "We're getting close. Four more levels, then we're at Yahz'rod. We can do this. I know we can."

Dantenar was cleaning her poleaxe, which shone dark with blood. "This is gross. I liked it much better when there was no blood to worry about. But thank goodness we're nearly there."

Again, Kile got a thoughtful look on his face, and I knew he was thinking about his dreams. I spoke up before he could get lost in his reflections. "Time to go, the quicker we do this the quicker we can get rid of Yahz'rod."

We took off again, down to fifty, then fifty-one. Again, we had to stop and catch our breath, and this time, we stayed a while. We had gotten on top of a table, and strangely enough none of the monsters could get onto it or hurt us. It was weird. The Yetis and Ogres were big enough to flatten us while on the table but for some reason they didn't.

On level fifty-two, Aileen was clipped by a sword and was having trouble with the wound. It was on her left rib, but none of us were healers and couldn't help her. Dantenar and Zara each donated the cuffs of their sleeves to make a bandage, which helped slow the bleeding but didn't dull the pain. Aileen gritted her teeth. "I can go on. Only one more level. All I have to do is shoot at the darn thing, I don't have to get in close and fight it."

Her logic was good, so we continued on, more slowly so that she could keep up. We paused on the down stairs. "Are you sure about this, guys?" Kile asked. "Are you ready for it?"

Dantenar bared her teeth in a savage grin. I felt myself smile at her enthusiasm as she said, "Let's get done with it and go home!" She was the first one down the stairs, with Zarathel and Aileen only slightly behind.

"It's a sad day indeed when the girls are more aggressive then the guys," Kile remarked, and followed. I was right on his heels as we stepped off the stairs, and I saw Dantenar looking around in shock.

"There's no monsters. Usually there are a lot, where are they?"

Aileen hurriedly shushed her. "Don't jinx us, it's good that they're gone! If you talk about them, they might come back..."

We walked around the level slowly. There were no monsters whatsoever. It was strange not to have to worry about being ambushed, or killed. I looked around warily, though, and kept my Addertongue at the ready.

_(A/N: An Addertongue is a sword with two points at the end, so that it's forked, like a snake's tongue)_

All was quiet until we got into a large room in the center of the level. There, making Dantenar gasp, was Gimbo Tel.

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_Well, that's that! End of the story! Not really of course, but this is one of the last chapters. Another chapter and an epilogue should do it, I think. This is like my longest chapter ever, I've never had one more than five pages before, and this one's six and a half. So sorry for the long wait, but I've been busy with school and stuff. The quicker you review, the quicker the next chapter gets put up! Oh, and I'm going back and editing chapters, since I found out the monsters name is Yahz'rod, not Kuhz'rod. Sorry about that._


	13. The Final Battle

Chapter Thirteen

_Zarathel's POV:_

I stared in shock at my father, who was now looking up. He smiled at me, and said my name. My heart was screaming "NO!" but my mouth couldn't make a noise. Suddenly, Dantenar raised her poleaxe and stood in her ready stance.

"You're not my father, monster! Resume your natural form!" Her face was set in hard lines, but her eyes looked a little damp in the dim light. "Gimbo Tel isn't allowed in the Dungeon, now _drop his form!_"

Kile looked at Dantenar, surprised by her courage, I think. My twin was still glaring at Gimbo, who bared his teeth and howled. I winced at the noise. It was high and piercing, with words mixed in. I couldn't understand them, and Gimbo Tel's body swelled and twisted, until he was a hideous creature with burning red eyes.

"Yahz'rod," I hissed. I held up my Feathered Scepter as a warning as the Emperor Abomination glided closer to me. He seemed to be hovering a few inches above the ground, probably showing off his magical prowess. I wasn't impressed.

Jaron, who had taken a step backwards in surprise, now walked quietly up until he was standing next to Kile. They held a hasty whispered council, in which I caught the words "Abomination" and "Crossbow." I had a feeling they were trying to figure out what to do so that Aileen could shoot the monster with her crossbow, weakening it sufficiently so that we could finish it off.

Aileen. I looked behind me to see her leaning against the wall of the Dungeon, trying to load her crossbow without the Emperor Abomination noticing her. Her side was dark with blood, and her face had a whitish tinge, but she was managing. After loading the bolt, she held the crossbow at her side, ready to shoot at a moments notice.

Kile and Jaron finished their council of war, and Kile stepped forward. "Monster, know that your time here on...this game is short!" I hid a smile. "We will kill you and anything else you might conjure up to have us fight."

Jaron rolled his eyes slightly, but then we all took an involuntary step backward as a dozen or so shapes appeared out of nowhere. Summoned Dire Wolves glared at us out of evil orange eyes, and I gulped. These were much larger than the wolves I was used to fighting. I hoped that I'd be able to defend myself against them.

With an chorus of howling, the wolves launched themselves at us. Dantenar and I bunched together, desperately trying to keep the wolves from Aileen, who only had enough strength for one shot and was saving it for Yahz'rod. Dantenar whirled her poleaxe and sank it deep into the skull of a nearby wolf, who was trying to sneak past us to get at Aileen. They could probably smell the blood and knew that she was wounded and not able to take care of herself as well. I brought my Fist Mace down on the skull of another wolf, killing it outright, and clipped the muzzle of a third with my Feathered Scepter. It whimpered and backed off, licking the wounded part. I was disgusted. Before the wolf had a chance to react, Kile had chopped its head off. Wolves were disappearing into sparkles left and right, and finally they were all gone. Not one had gotten past us to Aileen.

Yahz'rod gave an ear-splitting shriek of rage and spoke for the first time. _ Imbeciles! Weaklings! I shall eat your hearts for that! I shall make your deaths slow and painful, pluck your limbs off one at a time and keep you alive for the whole thing!_ His voice was low and rasping, and filled with menace.

I nearly gagged. "Not while we still live and breathe, Yahz'rod!" I shouted back defiantly.

Yahz'rod just gave a wheezing laugh and retreated to another room, throwing back a single comment: _That's the point, Zarathel._

Dantenar's face was angry. "We'll make him pay for that. We need to have a better plan, though. If he keeps summoning creatures to fight for him, we'll never have enough time to distract him long enough for Aileen to shoot him!" She whispered in a fierce tone.

_Kile's POV:_

I was proud of my sister's courage, but I had to disagree. "If he summons creatures and watches them try to destroy us, it stands to reason that he won't have his guard up. If Aileen can just make that hit with her crossbow, we stand a chance."

Aileen got a very determined look on her face. "I'll hit him, don't worry. I just don't know if it'll be in the right spot. It's a small target, Kile, you know that."

Zarathel was still seething over Yahz'rod's last comment. "You're a good shot, Aileen. I know you can hit it." She smiled reassuringly at Aileen, who smiled back. "Now, let's go and get Yahz'rod," Zarathel finished. She led the way out of the room we were in and into a narrow corridor.

Dantenar made a strange noise, but when I turned back to look at her, she turned and smiled. "I'm fine, I just stubbed my toe on a raised part of the floor."

Reassured that my little sister was unhurt, I turned back to the front. We were in front of a door now, and Zarathel and I looked at each other, unsure of what to do next. "Open it, of course," Jaron said, and did so. He was the first one in, looking around warily and holding his Addertongue at the ready. "He's not in here," He called back, sounding a little put out. "It's empty."

Dantenar, who was still in the back, scowled. "Of course he's not in here." We all stared at her. "If he were in here, wouldn't the bottom of the door showed a slight red glow?" I nodded sheepishly. "Let's try the one down the hall." Dantenar led the way out of the room, walking down the hall and stopping next to a door with a faint red glow at the bottom. "I think he's in here," She whispered. She opened the door and went in slowly, keeping to the shadows. We followed.

Yahz'rod was in the middle of the room, chanting to himself with his eyes closed. The door closed softly behind us as Aileen shut it carefully. Walking up slowly, she leaned over to me and whispered in a low voice, "I don't think he's noticed us yet."

Suddenly, the door opened and shut again. Luckily the noise was soft, so Yahz'rod didn't notice. A black shadow stole up behind Dantenar, and I whirled into action. However, the noise of my sword leaving it's sheath brought Yahz'rod back to awareness, and the dim room got very bright. He must have used his magic to brighten it. I gaped at the shadow standing behind Dantenar, which was staring back at me defiantly. It was Dantenar.

_Jaron's POV:_

The look on Kile's face as he stared at the two Dantenars was heartbreaking, the picture of a loving brother who had no idea which Dantenar was really his sister. Dantenar 1 turned to Dantenar 2 when she saw what Kile was looking at, and also looked shocked. "Dantenar?" Kile managed.

"Yes?" Dantenar 1 and Dantenar 2 said together. Their voice was the same, their facial expressions the same, everything about them was the same!

"Does Dantenar have another twin?" I whispered to Zarathel, who shook her head vehemently.

"I'm the only one she has. Honest."

Yahz'rod was watching us from the center of the room, chuckling to himself. We ignored him. The Dantenars were facing each other now, their weapons drawn. I stared at them, scrutinizing each one. There had to be a way to tell them apart! Dantenar 1 began circling Dantenar 2, who was staring at her double with a calm expression on her face.

"Monster," Dantenar 1 hissed. "Pretender! Go back to where you came from, fake! Everyone knows I'm the real Dantenar." Dantenar 2 didn't answer, and the first Dantenar went on. "I'll kill you like the monster you really are!" Dantenar 1 lunged forward with her spear, but the second Dantenar dodged nimbly. It was then that I realized which Dantenar was real, and I whispered which one it was to Kile, who nodded.

Dantenar 1 was panting now, having exhausted herself in multiple fruitless lunges at Dantenar 2, who was having no problem avoiding the blows. Dantenar 1 stumbled slightly, and that was when Dantenar 2 made her move. She darted forward and chopped down with her poleaxe, severing Dantenar 1's head neatly from her shoulders. Yahz'rod roared with anger as Dantenar 1 dissolved into sparkles. I felt vaguely satisfied, since I'd guessed right.

Kile hugged his real sister, who was staring at me. "Dantenar," He whispered fondly. "I should have realized it wasn't you."

"Yes, you should have," Dantenar said, but she was smiling. She looked back at me and raised her eyebrow, proving that she was the real one. I'd seen that expression to many times to be fooled by an imitation. "Why are you smiling?" She asked curiously.

My smile broadened. "I guessed right," I said simply. Dantenar rolled her eyes and shook her head in exasperation.

_Fools!_ Yahz'rod roared in anger. _You shall pay for that dearly!_ And he lashed out with a burst of magic.

_Kile's POV:_

A wave of purple magic came at us, and we all hit the floor. I covered my sisters as best I could, but they'd managed quite nicely to avoid the magic. I stood warily when it had passed. The others were standing as well, with the exception of Jaron, who was on the floor, unmoving. Dantenar looked at him with a worried expression.

Then Jaron sat up. His gaze rose to mine, and I stepped back involuntarily. His eyes were the same glowing red as Yahz'rod's, and as he stood, the monster was laughing. _He is mine._

Dantenar stepped backwards, the pain on her face mirroring the pain I'd felt when there were two of her. "Not for long," she muttered in response to Yahz'rod's single line. She turned to me. "He's the real Jaron, we can't kill him!"

Aileen and Zarathel nodded in agreement. "She's right, it would be wrong. There has to be a way to free him without killing him." Zarathel looked at Aileen approvingly.

_Kill them. Make their death's slow and painful._ Yahz'rod's voice was triumphant. Jaron grinned evilly, raising his Addertongue and advancing on us. Dantenar took another step backwards, her eyes wet with unshed tears. Looked like Zarathel was right; Dantenar liked Jaron.

I raised my sword and stepped in front of the girls. Aileen was squinting at Yahz'rod, probably trying to get an idea of where the target was, and I had to keep Jaron from her so she could concentrate on killing him. "Stop, Jaron," I said in a loud voice. "Don't you remember us? You've spent the last three weeks with us, do you really want to kill us?"

"My master wishes you dead," Jaron said. His voice was the same low, raspy voice that Yahz'rod used. "I will listen to my master." Evidently Yahz'rod had a good hold over his mind. Jaron was too strong-willed to be controlled by anything less than a master magician.

I leaped forward, stabbing at Jaron with my sword. I didn't want to hurt him, but I didn't want him to hurt my sisters or Aileen, either. Jaron dodged and blocked, and we backed up again, circling each other warily. Dantenar and Zarathel were standing next to each other, Zara with her arms around Dantenar, who was hiding her face. Jaron glanced at them, and for a brief second I thought I saw recognition in his eyes. But it was gone again just as soon as it had appeared.

The next time I went around, I saw Dantenar and Zara whispering to each other, Aileen listening and nodding. Jaron darted forward, and we locked swords. "Come on, Jaron, remember!" I whispered in a fierce tone.

"My master wishes you dead!" Jaron said in return. He pushed, hard, with his sword, making me stumble backwards. He came in for the kill, but was stopped by a soft, feminine voice from behind him.

"Jaron." Jaron turned, and I followed his gaze. It was Dantenar. She was unarmed. Jaron started towards her, and she smiled. Taking a few steps forward, she stopped again. Jaron stopped about two feet in front of her, looking unsure.

_What are you waiting for? Kill her!_ Yahz'rod was livid at his hesitance.

"Master, she is unarmed."

Dantenar smiled again as Jaron turned to Yahz'rod, then took one step towards him, put her arms around his neck and kissed him, making him drop his sword in surprise. Jaron's eyes opened very wide, but they slowly lost their red glow and went back to their normal hazel color before the lids lowered. Almost hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around Dantenar's waist.

Yahz'rod roared/shouted, obviously enraged that he'd lost his minion. And that was when Aileen brought up her crossbow, took careful aim and fired. Yahz'rod roared again, this time in pain. Zarathel grabbed Dantenar's spears, and shoved both of them deep into Yahz'rod's body, making him roar a third time. I drove my sword into the Emperor Abominations body until it wouldn't go in any farther, then did the same with Jaron's Addertongue. Dantenar dealt the finishing blow with her poleaxe, leaving a dazed Jaron standing with a confused look on his face.

With a final groan of pain, Yahz'rod the Emperor Abomination keeled over and died. We cheered, all of us (even Jaron, who was recovering from Dantenar's unexpected move) and the game started to run and melt. I looked around in surprise, then the world went black.

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_A/N: THE FINAL CHAPTER!! Now all I have to do is write an epilogue. That shouldn't take to long, probably within a week or so I'll be posting it. So what did you think? Review!!_

_Thanks to my faithful reviewers almostinsane and Measha of Clomati. I love you guys!_


	14. Epilogue

Chapter Fourteen

(AKA epilogue)

((Present Day))

_Dantenar's POV:_

I laugh as a football sailshigh overhead, Kile chasing after it. After making an impressive aerial leap to grab it, he lands awkwardly and falls over, laughing as well. Zarathel looks up from her notebook to see what was going on, then takes a drink of her apple juice and goes back to writing.

Kile is just getting back on his feet when another form hurtls into him, effectively tackling him. Jaron grabbs the football and races off towards the "end zone," (actually just a large rectangle of grass sectioned off by orange cones) holding it high above his head in a victory gesture. He nearly has a touchdown when Kile makes a flying leap and tackles him. They stop playing after this, because Dad has opened the grill and is busily transferring the hamburgers and hotdogs to a plate.

Aileen had gone to the car to get the cooler with the drinks in it, and now she brings it back, carefully avoiding touching it to her side.

It's been two months since we destroyed Yahz'rod, and our lives are nearly back to normal. Aileen still has that wound, but it's healing nicely and the doctors say it won't leave much of a scar. Turns out that you _do_ age in the game, since Kile is still twenty-two, and basically this little party is to celebrate his twenty-second birthday. The Makers were invited, but only Dreya and Jin could make it.

Their car pulls up right as we're going to say grace, so we wait for them to jog over before praying. Dad does the honors, being the oldest, and after his prayer, we dig in. Dreya and Jin are remarkably similar. Both have golden brown hair and brown eyes.

I grab a hamburger and a slice of cheese, then go to sit on a picnic table, grabbing a bottle of water on the way. Zarathel saunters over to sit beside me, then Kile and Jaron, talking together about – what else? - football. Jaron slides onto the bench in front of me, flashing a grin my way as the two young men continue to discuss plays and strategies. I rolled my eyes. Guy talk.

Dad, Dreya and Jin (who have decided to keep their names) come over and sit down on the picnic table as well. Dad raises his cup of Coke and toasts our future. We echo his words and all take a sip together, which makes me grin. I'm easily amused.

Zarathel is still writing in the notebook, and I try to tell what the title is. Without looking up, she angles the notebook so I can see the title scrawled on the front with green Sharpie marker: _**What is your FATE?**_

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A/N: THE END!!!!!!!!!!! This was such a fun story to write. Maybe I'll do a sequel! Anyway, review what you thought of the story, things I can improve on and things that you really liked. I know I said the epilogue would be up within the week, and you probably weren't expecting it so soon, but I just had to finish it. So this is it. The end of the story. Hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks, as always, to my faithful reviewers:

almostinsane

Measha of Clomati

oroya edge

Dead Paw

fate-n-fable

Too bad there weren't more of you...grrr. Anyway, if you read it, thanks!


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